Subway Etiquette - Part II

Whereas my first blog on subway etiquette focused on my interactions with other ttc passengers, this time around I've decided to address a group that encompasses some of the most egregious violators of ttc etiquette and, indeed, basic human decency. Today's post covers the ttc workers themselves. Like most ttc patrons, I could write a treatise on the incidents I've seen transpire, with everything from bus drivers looking me in the eye and driving right past my stop, to drivers leaving a packed, rush-hour bus in the middle of the route to procure their daily serving of coffee and donuts. But what prompted this post was one experience in particular that happened to me this morning...

 

This month, unlike most, I didn't have a chance to purchase my discount student metro pass because of the Christmas holiday and as a result I've been struggling with tokens for the past week, but today I happened to run out. So instead of taking the bus, this morning I began my daily commute by walking to my local station (about ten minutes from my house) so I could buy a new set of tokens. As I came down the escalator I noticed that I had a ton of coins in my coin pouch although not quite enough to make the $11.25 I needed to get 5 tokens. So I took out a twenty dollar bill and five quarters in hopes of getting back a ten dollar bill as change so I could get rid of some of the coins in my pocket. This was especially important today because having so many coins can make it hard to pick out the tiny ttc tokens, which is especially annoying when you're rushing to catch a train.

So I asked the woman in the booth for 5 tokens and handed her my twenty dollar bill along with the five quarters. She replied, “Do you want to keep your change? I have too many coins.”

In as polite a voice as I could muster, I said, “Actually, if possible, I'd rather not.”

Then, in a snarky and pejorative tone, she came back with, “Yea? Well, me neither.” What she really meant to say was, “Too bad!” because she then handed me back my quarters, and gave me the rest of the change from the twenty in loonies and twoonies.

Now, I don't think I look that young, but somehow ttc workers always feel entitled to talk to me as though I'm their nephew and I need to be taught a lesson. I have no doubt that If I was a 45-year-old in a shirt and tie, I would have been given the 10-dollar bill that common sense dictated I should have got. Technically, there was nothing I could do. Her only obligation was to give me my change, but I had no right to insist on what form it came in. But what really pissed me off, apart from the snide way in which the transaction was conducted on her part, was the fact that I clearly had a better argument for why the coins were a bigger burden on me than her. All she would have had to do was to place them in a tray and dole them out as change when the need arose. I, on the other hand, would have to lug the coins around for the rest of the morning in my already overstretched wallet.

I suppose it's also possible that she was running low on fives and tens but at the end of the day, like all coins and notes, she would eventually have to give her last ten dollar bill to some lucky customer anyway. This begged the question, who was she saving it for? And why wasn't I good enough to be that guy?

Then a light bulb went off in my head. Since today is just the 9^th of the month, I figured, I'll probably go through at least another 30 tokens before the time comes to buy my next metro pass. So I turned to her and said, “Oh, it's like that is it? Well in that case, give me five more tokens” and I proceeded to return every last coin she tried to dump on me along with an additional $1.25 in coins I meticulously handpicked to include only pennies, nickels and dimes so that there could be no mistaking my message.

She paused for a second and looked at me grudgingly. In my mind's eye, my facial expression was a prefectly orchestrated blend of screw-you-too and gotcha-bitch! Finally, she pressed the button to release five more tokens down the shute. I scooped them up and gleefully floated passed the turnstyle, never once taking my eyes off her just in case she looked up so I could once again hammer home the message that I had clearly got the better of her this time around. She didn't look up. But she knew. I know she knew.

AlexsJenkins