Metro Magazine

MAY 2013

Magazine serving the bus and rail transit & motorcoach operations since 1904

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metro news "Sometimes, somebody says or does something, and … we don't think it warrants enough [for a] call to transit police," Lukas said. "But perhaps you leave the system and are still upset. There's no way to follow up with the [offender] but you want us to know about it." In the year ahead, Metro is also planning to implement a training program for front-facing employees, such as station managers and bus operators, for responding to victims. Additionally, Hollaback!, an international advocacy group focused on ending street harassment against women, is partnering with OC Transpo to form a plan to increase public awareness of assaults and provide education on how to detect and respond to incidents. Julie LaLonde, director, Ottawa Hollaback!, said the group scanned stories it received on its website, identifying harassment on transit as one of the main concerns. attention. We wanted to make sure we responded very quickly." Metro also launched a Web portal for riders to report sexual harassment and assault incidents. The report is emailed to Metro's Chief of Police. Metro then tries to make initial contact with the victim within 48 hours. The online reporting tool provides a new way for Metro to capture the information since it had never before recorded or kept track of cases of verbal harassment. "Technically it's not considered a crime to tell somebody something inappropriate, unfortunately," Lukas said. However, the Web portal gives riders a place to provide that information, whether the incident was illegal or not. The portal also gives Metro more data to help identify problem spots on the system. Another benefit of the portal is that riders can provide information without having to call transit police. "In particular, people don't feel comfortable reporting it," LaLonde said. "These things happen in plain sight of other people and there's little to no bystander intervention. What we're hearing is people don't know what it is that they're seeing. They know something is going on, but they're not sure what it is or what they should do." John Manconi, GM, OC Transpo, said that in a recent meeting the transit system and advocacy group identified a common goal of educating the public that safety is everyone's responsibility and discussed opportunities, such as ad campaigns on buses and promotional materials. Hollaback also educated OC Transpo on Green Dot Strategy, a philosophy that directs bystanders to get involved. For example, if a rider sees someone moving around frequently on a bus, they should make people aware or speak to the driver when safe to do so. Luminator - TwinVision Proud to be Made in America Destination Signs • Passenger Message Boards • INFOtainment 900 Klein Road, Plano, Texas 75074 - 972-424-6511 6 < mETRO mAGAZINE MAY 2013 metro-magazine.com

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