Transit Fail

Let’s admit – we all have issues with others riding the rocket. Whether it’s backpacks shoved in our face, pole huggers – riders that seem to aspire to a career in stripping, or door blockers – those that choose to block the nearest exit regardless of available space in the subway car. It’s doubtful that TTC or Rob Ford will ever do anything to address these annoying habits. I decided to take matters into my own hands and designed a set of stickers that can be used to passively-aggressively point out these shortcomings and hopefully eradicate them by means of social ridicule.

For now, I’ve put together a set based on a recent poll by blogTO aimed to identify some of the top annoyances on the TTC.

All stickers are designed to be used with standard 2″x4″ Avery sticker sheets available at your neighborhood office supply retailer. With a help of a standard inkjet or laser printer you can easily print a set of your own and start policing your daily route. Simply apply a sticker to whoever bothers you – preferably somewhere that will let others know about that rider’s shortcomings for the longest amount of time possible. My hope is that they will notice this sticker when reaching their final destination, feel like complete tools and will think twice about doing it again.

Surely someone will get pissed off and direct their rage at you or whoever designed the sticker (i.e me). I do not encourage you to engage in conflict with them as it might result in a heated exchange or a fight. I also don’t encourage applying them to any TTC property as that may result in a vandalism charge. You should also use common sense to avoid personal property damage in applying them and I will not take any responsibility for any issues that might arise for you by using them.

At the end of the day, taking public transit requires a certain unspoken protocol that a lot of riders seem to ignore and need to be singled out for. Only then, I believe, we have a chance at a more pleasant transit experience. With ongoing cuts to service and increasing population these problems are bound to get worse.

I encourage you to submit your own annoyances in the comments below – perhaps I, or other riders more proficient in computer use and design can enhance this basic set. I am releasing all sets as open source under a Creative Commons Attribution License. This means that they can be reproduced in unlimited quantities without fear of violating copyright laws. Feel free to post links to your own sets in this thread, on your Facebook page or your blog.

Download PDF (3.3 MB)

Download Source Files & Standalone Labels (3.7 MB)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Alte Haas Grotesk is a free font by Yann Le Coroller.