How to attract people to public transport

Public transport is one area that cops a beating from vandals. Big graffiti murals on trains make the news, but the acres of small tags spread across all the bus infrastructure has been forgotten about. Bus shelters, seats and signage are repeatedly hit by vandals. Cleaning a shelter or seat isn't that hard, but cleaning the signage tends to result in the information on the sign being erased by the chemical cleaning agents.

Apart from being a mess, this sign is out of date. It advertises a "travelpass", which has been replaced by the "mybus" or "myzone" travel system. I guess the people in charge of marketing the new ticketing system forgot about cleaning up and updating all the bus info poles out there in the suburbs.

What continues to frustrate me is that a bus driver pulls up at this spot every 15 minutes or so between 6am and 8pm. Dozens of bus drivers would see the state of this sign (and many others like it) every day. However, none can ever be bothered to report the vandalism. The excuse from Sydney Buses is that councils are responsible for the seating and signage. Fine - but why is there no mechanism for communicating damage to that infrastructure between Sydney Buses and councils? Why do Sydney Buses just wash their hands of the matter and claim that it is somebody else's problem?

The fig leaf of "acting commercially"

I received the letter below from Penny Sharpe MLC, Parliamentary Secretary for Transport:

When I wrote to our local member, I did not ask that either State Transit of private bus companies spend any money on cleaning bus shelters and bus seats - that makes paragraph 4 a waste of space.  Furthermore, the company I am working for presently has hundreds of outlets around Australia, and some of them get graffiti on them from time to time. The company is utterly ruthless about having it removed immediately - first thing before they open their doors - because they understand it is bad for their corporate image.  I don't see how "acting commercially" can ever be an excuse for failing to remove graffiti.  

I will be interested to see how paragraph 5 works out - the request for State Transit to institute a policy requiring drivers to report bus shelter graffiti.  Will the bus unions play ball?  I doubt it.  

My response is going to be along these lines:

We have a Labor MP in our electorate - Angela D'Amore, and one next door in Balmain - Verity Firth.  Now let's imagine it has come election time, and Verity visits our electorate and notices that someone has been busy drawing Pancho Villa moustaches on every poster of Angela, and writing rude words about the Labor Party.  Will Verity:

A) - do nothing, as it is not her electorate, and therefore not her problem

B) - ring Angela and tell her she has a problem, and that the defacement of her posters is a problem for all Labor candidates as it "contaminates the brand", making them all look bad

C) - try and clean the graffiti off, or failing that, remove the vandalised posters and arrange for replacements to be sent out

I wonder if Penny Sharpe will see the parallels between this and the situation facing Sydney Buses?  Sydney Buses are not responsible for the bus shelters, but a smashed up, defaced bus shelter makes them look bad.  Do they:

A) - do nothing (which is what they do now)

B) - report it

C) - do something about it

I'm not asking for "C".  I'm simply asking for "B".  It will cost them almost nothing - not even a phone call, since most councils have a web based logging system for this sort of thing.

Smashed up bus shelters and social justice

Over the last 6 months, I've reported a number of tagged and smashed up bus shelters around Canada Bay.  Most shelters and most bus signage belong to council, but some is the responsibility of the RTA, and Sydney Buses have recently been rolling out information posts with timetable information on them.  I'm not sure if Sydney Buses are responsible for the ongoing maintenance and cleaning of those posts or not.

Regardless of ownership, if a shelter has been provided for bus customers, then the least that they can expect is that it will be somewhere that they can wait in a reasonable level of comfort. For pensioners, this may mean having a clean seat to sit on, and some shelter from the elements - the sun in summer, and the wind and rain in winter.  At night, if lighting is installed, it should be working.

I've gone past bus shelters and seen customers unwilling to stand or sit in the shelter because of the amount of rubbish and graffiti within the shelter, or because the shelter has been vandalised by breaking glass panels.  It's disheartening to see pensioners standing in the rain next to a smashed up bus shelter when they clearly need to sit down and rest.  

So you can think of keeping bus shelters in good order as a social justice issue, which should be right up the alley of a Labor government.

I wrote to the Minister for Transport earlier this week asking that Sydney Buses be directed to report damaged and vandalised bus shelters and signage to the appropriate council.  I'm sure I'll get a wishy-washy response, stating that Sydney Buses have a parternship with councils and are working closely to address the problem etc etc.  If what I have seen is an indication, then stating something like that would clearly be a blatant lie.

Regardless, my aim is to get Sydney Buses to view vandalised bus shelters and signage as a problem that they have to deal with, rather than somebody else's problem.

10 March 2009

The Hon. David Campbell MP

Minister for Transport, and Minister for the Illawarra

Level 35

Governor Macquarie Tower

1 Farrer Place

SYDNEY NSW 2000

Dear Mr Campbell

Sydney Buses – graffiti reporting policy

I am writing in regard to the policy (or lack thereof) of Sydney Buses and their approach to reporting malicious damage and graffiti to bus shelters.

I am aware that most bus shelters are the responsibility of local councils or the RTA.

Many of the bus shelters and roadside seats at bus stops in the Canada Bay area have been vandalised over the last 12 months – graffiti has been sprayed on shelters, signage and seats; glass panels in the shelters have been smashed and signs have been bent or pulled out of the ground.

Much of this damage would be clearly visible to the drivers of the Sydney Buses that stop at these shelters many times per day.  However, it appears that not one driver has bothered to report damage to any bus related infrastructure to the relevant council over the last year.  Sydney Buses expect councils to discover the damage on their own, or for bus customers or residents to report it to council.

My local member said the following in Parliament on 26 June 2008:

Ms ANGELA D'AMORE: The member for Castle Hill referred to my comments on graffiti. Any commander you speak to will tell you that one of the crime prevention strategies with graffiti is to actually report it and remove it within 24 hours.

Can you please explain to me how it might be possible for councils to meet the target of removing graffiti within 24 hours from bus shelters if no one from Sydney Buses ever bothers to report it?  From a legal and technical standpoint, Sydney Buses are correct in standing back and declaring that it is “not their problem”.  However, from a whole-of-government standpoint, their bloody-minded approach to graffiti on infrastructure installed specifically for bus services is appalling.  

Most of their customers would not realise that Sydney Buses is not responsible for bus shelters – it took me some time to find out that this is the case, as information on bus shelter ownership is not readily available.  As far as the customer is concerned, the condition and quality of the bus shelter, signage and seating is ineluctably associated with the bus service.  If I catch a bus, I walk to a bus stop and rest in a bus shelter whilst waiting for the bus to arrive.  I do not walk to a council-provided roadside sign and rest in a council-provided weather sanctuary whilst waiting for a bus to arrive.

Please direct Sydney Buses to change their policies in this regard, and to become a good corporate citizen.

Yours sincerely

Deliberate and accidental damage

A bus shelter, following an attack by vandals.  Two of the glass panels have been smashed out and left on the footpath.

The thing that really infuriates me about this is not the damage (that's bad enough), but the fact that at least 50 buses stop here every day, and it appears that not one employee of Sydney Buses thought to report this damage back to their depot, so that it could be passed on to Council.  It was left to me to ring Council this morning and report it.

Here's a photo of accidental damage that was emailed to me today.  This is an old sign, dating back to the days of Drummoyne Council, making it at least 10 years old.  Signs of this vintage tend to be painted, so when you try to clean them with metho, everything rubs off - graffiti and information.  

It's one of those instances where I hope the Council anti-graffiti team has gone "oops" and told the Council signage team that they need to replace this sign.  If not, it just goes to show that Council has some way to go until it gets its management "silos" talking to each other.

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Update [Wed 14 Jan]

The above sign has been reported to Council by a like-minded citizen, who emailed me the reference number - 30210763.

Vandals decline to turn over a new leaf

I took the kids to Five Dock Park for their first frolic of the year, and on the way, we went past two smashed up bus shelters outside Domremy College.  All the glass in both shelters had been attacked.  It must be pretty tough stuff, because only one chunk of glass fell out of this shelter and onto the path.

Until Council fixes it, these won't be very pleasant places to wait for a bus.  Not what I would call an encouraging start to getting people onto public transport this year.    Trouble is, I can't raise anyone at Council today to get this seen to - at the very least, the broken pane should be removed or covered up to stop someone cutting themselves on it, and the glass on the ground removed.

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Update - rang Council this morning (2 Jan).  They said they'd get someone over quick smart to clean up the glass on the ground.

Taking care of the pensioners

This rather well used bus stop is outside Concord Hospital.  Whenever I go past it, the only people waiting for a bus appear to be those too old to drive - pensioners.  And this is how we treat them - a filthy, vandalised bus shelter that I wouldn't use to house a dog.  

Would you want to wait here for a bus on a dark night?  I wouldn't.

I've reported this to Canada Bay Council, but I realised today that there are two bus stops at the hospital, and the other one is pristine.  I hope they get the right one.

My beef here as usual is with Sydney Buses.  They'll state that bus stops are not their problem - they belong to councils.  However, I didn't realise that until I started trying to get them cleaned up, and I've been catching buses on and off for years.  As far as I am concerned, if I am waiting at a bus stop to be collected by a bus, then that bus stop is the responsibility of the bus company.  It might not be in a legal sense, but if the bus company had an ounce of common sense, they'd realise that crap looking bus shelters give them a crap looking image.  All Sydney Buses has to do is what I have done - ring up the responsible council and let them know.  Given that dozens of buses, driven by dozens of drivers, pull up at this stop every day of the week, you'd think that one of them would have the gumption to get the ball rolling.

This next photo is of a spacker that I spotted walking barefoot down the middle of the road outside Concord Hospital.  The guy was clearly of his nut, and it was only a bit after 9am.  

As for his dress sense, with the baggy trousers, bandana and enormous pirate-like ear ring, let me just say that watching "The fast and the furious" too many times can do terrible things to a person's mind.

Sydney Buses and their blind drivers

Sydney Buses don't own the bus stops that their buses stop at.  Councils own the bus stops and shelters.  I reported three shelters like this to Council today, including one outside Concord Hospital.

I am still waiting for an explanation from Sydney Buses as to how a driver can pull up at a shelter like this and fail to see all the graffiti in it, when I could see it from across the road.

Next time a bus runs you off the road, you are free to wonder about whether the drivers are undergoing regular eyesight tests.

Bus shelter - Wareemba

Reported via the Council's new-fangled web system.

I still have to ask why, when graffiti is this obvious, why it wasn't reported earlier by a bus driver.  It's not like it isn't obvious.

10 Oct update - the bus shelter has been cleaned up.  Don't know when it was done, but it's clean now.

Sydney Buses - followup

I got a comment the other day that said that bus stops like this are the responsibility of the local Council, not the bus companies.  Well, I don't really care who takes care of it, and someone has - this had graffiti smack bang in the middle of it two weeks ago.

I haven't had a formal response from Sydney Buses yet, but it's only been two weeks, and I am a patient fellow.

My concern is not who owns the bus stops and signs and streetside furniture.  My concern is that Sydney Buses seems to have a very relaxed attitude to keeping an eye on the state and condition of bus stops, and reporting it to whomever is responsible for fixing them.  

As an occasional bus commuter, I don't give two hoots about who owns the seat at the bus stop that I travel from.  Sydney Buses can shout as loudly as they like that it is not their problem, but the seat has their name on it, and it's at a spot where buses stop, so in my mind, it is associated with them.  Furthermore, because of that association, it reflects badly on my perception of their service and competence.  When I see a seat at a bus stop that is so badly trashed that I don't want to risk sitting on it, I have to wonder about the state of the bus that I'll be traveling on, the level of care that the driver will show and even the punctuality and reliability of the service.

If Sydney Buses care about their image, then they'll care about ensuring that bus stops are in good condition, even if it is not their responsibility to take care of them.

Vandalism on the 661 bus route

This album of three photos shows why I cannot see how the street furniture owned by Sydney Buses can remain in a state like that shown below. This seat has been in this condition for months, with two very obvious tags on the backrest.

661 Bus Route

One of the photos in this libary shows a bus stopped at this spot. The seat was clearly visible to the driver - I walked up alongside the bus and stood behind the seat and had a look.

Sydney Buses clearly has a bit challenge in encouraging its staff to report damage like this so that it can be fixed.

I've geotagged these photos by the way, so if you click on them and then go to the "map view", it will show you where they were taken (I think).

The 407 and 466 bus routes

As an experiment, I travelled along a bus route and photographed all the Sydney Bus infrastructure that I could find - clean and dirty.


Note the map on the pole - this photo really doesn't show just how filthy and faded it is.

Graffiti in a bus shelter.




An almost clean bit of bus signage.


The one completely clean sign along this part of the route.




Either someone has done an incredibly bad job of cleaning graffiti off this seat, or it has been here so long, people sitting on it have partly worn it off.



Signage, seating and shelters are all part of the image that Sydney Buses presents to the public.

From these images, you could conclude that a fairly unattractive image is being presented.

Are any drivers or inspectors bothering to report damage and graffiti? If they are, is anyone bothering to come out and fix it? I've been down this route a bit over the last few months, and this is how all this signage has looked over that time. Nothing has been cleaned or refreshed.

More bus signage in Putney

This bus pole shows what I presume one should look like - the yellow bracket contains a timetable for this route.

Just around the corner, this one holds a blank bit of paper. Not very useful for customers not familiar with this route.

This one has nothing at all, although that might be vandalism related to all the poles that have been pushed over.

The question is: has any driver reported this so that it can be fixed?

Bus signage in Putney

Numerous signs have been pushed over along Pellesier Rd in Putney, including this Sydney Buses signage. If I didn't bother to report it, would a driver have reported it so that it could be fixed? Do drivers view anything that happens to property outside their bus as somebody else's problem?

Concord Hospital bus shelter

This is the bus shelter on Hospital Road outside Concord Hospital.

I wouldn't call it particularly attractive or well looked after. Looking at it doesn't fill me with confidence that Sydney Buses will provide a quality service. In fact, after looking at this shelter, it makes me wonder whether they provide any service at all in this area - it looks abandoned to me.

Letter to Sydney Buses

I think this is pretty self explanatory.  And I hate writing to disembodied "customer relations" departments.  

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17 August 2008

 

Customer Relations

Sydney Buses

PO Box 2557

Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

 

Dear Sir/Madam 

Detection and reporting of graffiti 

I wish to draw your attention to one specific instance of graffiti on Sydney Buses property that needs attention, and to make some general points about detecting and reporting graffiti on your assets. 

The specifics - there is a brick bus shelter outside Concord Hospital, on Hospital Road, that needs to be cleaned in order to remove an extensive amount of graffiti. 

The general – most of the graffiti on this particular bus shelter is on the inside, and it is clearly visible from inside a bus.  Any driver stopping at this bus shelter should be able to see the graffiti in question.  

Many of the bus stops in the inner west have been vandalised to some extent – usually one or more graffiti tags obscuring the run numbers or timetables, or tags defacing seats and walls.  I have posted a sample of photos at http://tinyurl.com/5f4wff 

I have looked at your website, and noted that although there is some mention of graffiti, there are no means to report graffiti on your assets to Sydney Buses, except perhaps via 131 500.  There is also no statement in regard to your policy for removing graffiti, or an explanation of how responsibility may be split between Sydney Buses and some other entity (such as a Council) in some instances. 

Sydney Water has an online form that can be used for a variety of purposes, and it allows the attachment of documents and photos, which can be quite useful when reporting graffiti and vandalism.  

I suggest you might want to introduce a similar feature. 

I am also at a loss as to why graffiti remains on your assets for longer than a few days.  Every one of your bus stops is visited many times per day by a bus, and in most cases (but not all), graffiti should be visible to the driver.  I have noticed that some services carry an Inspector, which provides an extra pair of eyes for spotting vandalism.  

I presume that Sydney Buses has some sort of internal system for reporting where drivers can report problems with assets – eg, damage to buses, maintenance and servicing issues and that sort of thing.  

I would also assume that the system is not just bus-centric, but allows for the reporting of problems to kerbside assets such as signage, shelters, seating and stops.  

Assuming that such a system exists, and that drivers have access to it and are trained in its use, then it is clear to me that the system is not being utilised to its full potential for reporting damage to your kerbside assets.  In many instances, I have been able to spot damage to your assets from the other side of the road, so I don’t think it should be too hard for drivers to spot it when they are stopped right next to an asset. 

I am not interested in why reports are not being made at present. 

 I am simply requesting that drivers are reminded by their managers to report vandalism if they see it.  If reports don’t start coming in, then I suggest that a manager with responsibility for your kerbside assets rides with a driver along a route and has a look for themselves. 

 

Yours sincerely

Sydney Buses attitude to graffiti

Compared to a lot of other government corporations and authorities, Sydney Buses actually have something about graffiti on their website.  Not a lot, but at least something.

Their "contact us" page even mentions graffiti.

However, the online feedback form is all about bus services, and doesn't allow you to report vandalism or damage to buses or property.

Fresh graffiti around the Five Dock library

It's Ferragosto today, and the efforts by Council to smarten up the main street of Five Dock have been partly undone by someone with a spray can.  On Saturday morning, I noticed fresh graffiti around the library, which also has a supermarket on the ground floor.  The first photo is of a shop across the street from the library - I didn't walk down the laneway going off to the right, but I suspect that whoever did this latest bit of vandalism probably walked down that lane and hit the back of all the shops along it.

The side of the library.  I have been shopping here for a few years now, and I have never seen fresh graffiti in this area - all the tags around this stretch look ancient.  It's well lit, next to the Police Station and due to the late hours of the supermarket, there are always pedestrians walking up and down this laneway.  But none of that has deterred someone.

I don't know if the graffiti truck works on weekends, so I will let Council know first thing Monday - unless the manager of the supermarket has already reported it.  I might see if I can talk to the manager about it - I'd prefer that the manager reports it, and takes ownership of the problem so that if it happens again, they'll take care of it.

I took a photo of the half-painted white wall shown here because this wall used to be bare brick, and had graffiti in several spots.  I am going to assume here that the owner has gotten sick of it, and has decided to paint the wall to make it easier to clean off future graffiti.  Even from across the street, I could see graffiti on the seat at the bus stop.

Concord Hospital security

The red box on the left denotes a bus shelter, which the hospital security vehicle on the right is driving past.  The security vehicle pulled out just in front of me as I was going past the hospital, and the driver went past the bus shelter without a sideways glance.

The bus shelter is of course covered in graffiti.  The elderly patients and visitors that rely on public transport have to sit and wait in a filthy, vandalised mess.

I imagine that the security guards, like most these days, are contracted in, and they perform only a limited and narrow set of functions.  Looking out for graffiti and reporting it does not appear to be one of those functions, even though graffiti is one of those things that increases the fear of crime.  I imagine it must be quite disconcerting for the elderly to have to sit in that bus shelter after dark, surrounded by graffiti and wondering if they are going to get mugged or not.

A mate of mine once worked in security at the Regent Hotel in the Rocks.  He was employed directly by the hotel, and he took a much broader view of his role.  The hotel had an image to maintain, and from what I can tell, all the staff at the hotel took an interest in ensuring that every aspect of the hotels functions were delivered to the best possible standard.  My mate was not just there to wrestle with the drunks and grab the thieves - his job was to help look after the image of the hotel, because if it suffered, he'd be out of a job.

I would have thought that the role of the security guards at Concord Hospital would be to create and maintain a safe environment for all staff, patients and visitors, and that includes taking care of anything that makes that environment feel less secure - like graffiti.

Victoria Rd - part 8 of 9

Graffiti on the side of an Ambulance station, and a bus stop.

The Scooter Shop, showing old graffiti on the roller door at the side.

An RTA traffic light control box - number 85.

The Scooter Shop - they've had a good go at cleaning this graffiti off, but I guess the stuff at the top was just out of reach, and no one could find a ladder to finish the job.

Although this box has a "high voltage" warning sign, there are none of the usual Energy Australia name tags on it, so I wonder who owns it?

Not even the charities are safe.