LRT Safety

[SarcasticMarmot]

I think fire showing up first for every event is total overkill. I understand if EMS is tied up, but you just don't see this in other cities. Downtown during certain times it can be firetrucks every 10 minutes for overdoses, the noise is crazy. In other cities that have specialized teams that just deal with that. There's gotta be a better solution than sending expensive firetrucks out for every call.

It happens in plenty of other cities as well. Mixture of the fact that fire is specifically funded to arrive as quickly as possible, so they will be first on the scene at most anything. Additionally, Fire being municipally funded and EMS being provincially funded provides a convenient way for the province to further download the costs onto municipalities.

 

[degrandprix]

A bit overkill, don't you think? Why was a firetruck needed for an OD? Why were 8 peace officers and 2 EPS officers needed for an OD?

Absolutely it was overkill, though it did make me feel like transit security is being taken a bit more seriously now.

Last year I called in an unconscious person at Gov. Center LRT in the morning. Came back later that day and they were still there! Don't know if anyone even came to check on them in the time between.

 

[MacLac]

According to my friends at EPS, yes indeed the first call to anybody, whether a fentanyl huncher attempting suicide or any other reason is to the Fire Dept. The EPS are “supposed” to administer Naloxone but rarely do as it is technically “not their job,” spoken line true Union members….lol.

 

[David A]

According to my friends at EPS, yes indeed the first call to anybody, whether a fentanyl huncher attempting suicide or any other reason is to the Fire Dept. The EPS are “supposed” to administer Naloxone but rarely do as it is technically “not their job,” spoken line true Union members….lol.

So its the Fire Department's job instead? I guess their union must be more easy going.

 

[Gronk!]

Overkill at responding to ODs is not a good use of taxpayers' money.

 

[David A]

Overkill at responding to ODs is not a good use of taxpayers' money.

I understand how the Fire Department gets drawn into this. Fires are not common, but they have to be ready to respond and quickly, so they are basically replacing, duplicating or supplementing the medical responders.

However, this can be detrimental. For instance what if they get a call to a medical incident which they are responding to and a fire happens and they are delayed in responding to that?

 

[Dubas]

Got off the train at Corona on Friday afternoon. 3 pairs of transit peace officers checking fares and making some arrests. Most enforcement I’ve seen in years. Good to see!

 

[The_Cat]

I saw about four transit peace officers in Central Station on Thursday.

 

[Avenuer]

A bunch of TPOs were recently hired over the last few months so perhaps this increased visible enforcement is a result of that.

 

[Avenuer]

Saw two pairs of TPOs patrolling Churchill LRT platform as well as an active arrest by EPS at the Royal Alex LRT station this morning around 9:30 AM (Sunday). Pretty good to see some enforcement during a quiet time of the week.

 

[IanO]

On Friday I had to call Transit Watch twice within an hour for two different situations at the top of stairs of Bay LRT on 104st south of Jasper.

1. 3 individuals smoking and blocking the stairs, definitely NOT transit users who would have made that passing very uncomfortable for actual users.
2. a guy totally out of his mind yelling at transit users and who the F knows what his motivation was, but I had to literally drag him out and away from trying to grab people.

It's unfortunate that these situations occur FAR too regularly in this (and other) spots and really would push casual users away from taking transit.

The good news is that for scenario #1 they showed up relatively quickly and kicked them out, but how at rush hour do we not have more officers doing this at main stations without having to call on a regular basis.

Alas.

 

[Dubas]

On Friday I had to call Transit Watch twice within an hour for two different situations at the top of stairs of Bay LRT on 104st south of Jasper.

1. 3 individuals smoking and blocking the stairs, definitely NOT transit users who would have made that passing very uncomfortable for actual users.
2. a guy totally out of his mind yelling at transit users and who the F knows what his motivation was, but I had to literally drag him out and away from trying to grab people.

It's unfortunate that these situations occur FAR too regularly in this (and other) spots and really would push casual users away from taking transit.

The good news is that for scenario #1 they showed up relatively quickly and kicked them out, but how at rush hour do we not have more officers doing this at main stations without having to call on a regular basis.

Alas.

These are the worst stairs in the whole city, I'm convinced. I don't even bother using them anymore. I think it's because the glass is just far back enough from Jasper street view.

 

[IanO]

My issue is that even though they just replaced all of the glass, it is warm moist air from below and so it makes the panels opaque and people hide just inside the doors.

It's CPTED 101 and I've brought it up to various ETS, EPS, PO folk and it falls on deaf ears.

 

[Gronk!]

Time to bring it up with the Mayor and City Council.
I find it interesting that the Bay station is neglected while the other stations have legions of law enforcement.