Rejected TTC passenger blocks path of bus that was too crowded to board

After waiting for the bus for up to 30 minutes in the cold, and then being told it was too crowded to board, one Toronto woman took her impromptu protest straight to the street on Friday night.

A video, shot by a TTC commuter who was on an affected bus, shows the woman walking north on Landsdowne Avenue in the right-hand lane. Behind her, according to the video description, are two buses, each crowded with about 100 passengers.

The lead bus slowly follows the woman. Whenever it tries to move to the left-hand lane to pass her, she moves to the middle of the road, blocking the bus’s path.

In the video, the bus driver can be heard on the phone with the TTC, describing the situation.

“I’ve got a disgruntled customer who is walking down the middle of the road holding up traffic, not letting me pass,” the driver says. “As I try to change lanes, she’s walking in front of me.”

“I’ve got an absolutely packed bus, I had to leave her on the sidewalk because I had no room for her. I’ve got another bus behind me, and we’re just sort of creeping along.”

The bus driver had asked the woman and a handful of other passengers to wait for another bus so that his view of the road wouldn’t be impacted, writes poster Andreas Wesley in the video’s description.

In the background of the video, a number of passengers can be heard complaining about the woman. “What you have to put up with” says one customer.

The woman waves at stopped traffic as she walks up the road, passing other stops where surprised commuters are waiting to board.

The bus makes it two blocks north of Lansdowne Station, to Wallace Avenue. The poster tells CityNews the bus stopped there to swap drivers and then continued without issue. The TTC is investigating.