Opinions

 

 

June 2004

 

 

Kali Thurber | opinions @otherpress.ca

Transit Bandit

Strikes Ag

ain

(Soon After is Struck Down by Evil
Plainclothes oe

Kali Thurber _
pence Editor

So, Vancouver's SkyTrain system has
finally reached a new level of super-
fluity. Translink’s 77 Special Police
Constables have been promoted (God
only knows why) to full-fledged
police officers. Not only that, but the
SkyTrain now employs a number of
plainclothes police officers to scout
out “suspicious characters” and possi-
ble fare evaders. And on top of all that
we still have those useless blue-jacket-
ed ticket inspectors wandering
around aimlessly, trying to look busy
when the real police are close by.

The situation makes me think of
those jokes we used to make up in
middle school that always started
with, “How many (insert derogatory
term here) does it take to (insert
ridiculously simple task here).” This
one starts with, “How many sky pigs
does it take to catch one transit ban-
dit?” The thing is, I haven't thought
of a punch line. You know why?
Because it just isn’t funny.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the

pleasure of running into one of these

  

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new undercover officers on my way
home late at night. Being a financial-
ly inept student, I had failed to pur-
chase one of the two-dollar tickets,
and therefore was hauled off the train
to be hounded by an unreasonably
angry policewoman. After having my
arm squeezed, being pushed up
against a brick wall, and called a liar
and a cheat, I came to the conclusion
that this woman’s anger could hardly
be because I didn’t pay two-dollars for
a ticket.

Perhaps her attitude grew from pre-
viously fancying the idea of being a
real police officer that handles real
offences. I'd probably be angry too if
I had been demoted to pestering
teenagers and low-income families for
a measly two-dollars. But then again,
this kind of ageism and prejudice
seems to be the primary focus of
police activity outside of the SkyTrain
as well as inside.

The fact is that we, the taxpayers,
are spending a ludicrously excessive
amount of money to employ three
different kinds of ticket inspectors,
when the alternative (purchasing
turnstiles) would be simple and cost-

Science Matters
Cities Intensify Climate Problems

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effective.

Apparently TransLink’s
argument for not getting turnstiles
has been cost-related, but a big bang
of around 47 million would surely be
cheaper than paying the wages of
three levels of ticket inspectors.

The SkyTrain, as of now, operates
the “Barrier-Free Proof of
Payment” system, which reminds me
of that old psychologist, Burrhus
Frederic Skinner. His learning theory
was that animals (humans included)
maintain positive behaviour when
punishment and reinforcement are

on

Living in cities, it's easy to forget
about our connection to the natural
world. In human-created environ-
ments, surrounded by concrete and
asphalt, we often feel isolated and
insular—as though we are protected
from the forces of nature.

In some ways, we are more protect-
ed, but in other ways our cities can
actually make us more vulnerable.
Consider climate change. A recent
report from the Harvard Medical
School looked at how human-
induced changes to the earth’s atmos-
phere would affect the health of peo-
ple living in cities. And the conclu-
sions weren't comforting.

It turns out that all the carbon diox-
ide and pollutants we are pumping
out through our tailpipes and smoke-
stacks doesn’t dissipate as readily as

  

given on a random basis. I suppose
the reasoning behind the theory is
that people behave best when they
know they could be checked on. But
judging by the problems this “Barrier-
Free Proof of Payment” system cre-
ates, one has to wonder how correct
Skinner was in his thinking. The
truth is that this system is just.waiting
to be taken advantage of, and if
TransLink would wake up and see
this we'd be paying less money and
have a more effective system running.

had been previously thought. In fact,
much of the carbon dioxide (the pri-
mary heat-trapping gas) pretty much
stays put, creating a “dome” of it over
our Cities.

This does two things. First, it inten-
sifies the urban “heat-island effect” —
that is, the tendency of cities to be
warmer than rural areas because of all
their infrastructure, pavement and
lack of green space. Higher carbon
dioxide concentrations add to this
effect, making cities up to several
degrees warmer than surrounding
areas—similar to being in a crowded
room with the windows closed.

In addition, the extra carbon diox-
ide increases plant growth—particu-
larly for opportunistic species that
thrive in cities, such as ragweed.
Pollen from these plants, along with

Photo by Angela Blattmann