My decision to boycott OC Transpo, and why you should too

I recently got a $150 ticket for taking the bus and forgetting my bus pass at home because I was rushing to an exam. I always carry my bus pass on me, it just so happens this time I switched took my spring jacket and left it in my winter coat.

People hop the bus all the time. How is it fair that paying customers get charged for admitting their name, complying with the officer and telling the truth? While the hoppers keep an eye out for cops and just get off at the stop never get charged?

There's something seriously wrong with this system. I don't know who the money goes to, but I sure as hell am not paying for slick teenagers' bus fares with my $150 fine.

Why not offer a bill to pay instead of a ticket? Then to get it revoked you simply show up at an OC transpo station with your pass? Is that really so difficult? It can't be that hard to use a different system.

Now: yes, yes, it's not that hard to bring your ID. Here's where you shut up. It's a matter of principle. I paid for the service, and I can prove it, but you're charging me for stealing. "Failure to provide adequate proof of payment" is really just you're stealing, now eat this. It's the same charge given to people who hop the bus without paying at all.

This by-law 2007-268 essentially allows the city to charge people as guilty before having any right to defend themselves. I want to hear a lawyer's perspective on this. I know there's a system behind making things work, but I do know the outcome is deeply wrong.

It's like walking into a store and being charged for shoplifting because you brought in one of the items they happen to sell, and being ticketed.

It's like walking in a park and being asked to provide proof of citizenship only to realize that you don't carry your passport everywhere; then being ticketed.

On top of all this their drivers are rarely happy, the by-law officers are extremely rude, and the reduced service (especially in my area) absolutely does not make up in any way for the buses being on time. I would rather catch a bus that passes often, but can be late, than a bus that never passes.

I heard two police women the other day on the packed 95 wide-eyed, saying "they need more buses". Not that I'm appealing to authority, but if they are any measure of reliable safety at all, there is some weight to this comment. But it's on every single rider's face, from the moment the doors open a sea of people form a wall, you'd be insane to try and push your way in. "Wait for the next bus."

I'm forced to pay for a pass (by Ottawa U) that takes me to school and back once a day (at most) at the least convenient times (the local service is totally worthless now so I walk to and from the 95) and still fails to protect me from being charged a ludicrous fee if I happen to forget the pass.

Is there not a more rational way to deal with this? The fee should be the same as regular bus fare. I would go no higher than that. Nor do they deserve any more than that. OC Transpo is one of the services offered by our city taking a tragic decline. I can't believe the capital of Canada would allow such sad business happen.