APRIL FOOLS! We hope you enjoyed this playful joke from Calgary Transit and Global Calgary. Unfortunately, the following story is not true:
READ MORE: April Fool’s Day 2015: The best pranks in Calgary
CALGARY – Calgary Transit is taking their etiquette campaign one step further with the introduction of a shocking new system they hope will teach riders to give up their seat to seniors and persons with disabilities.
The Jump Out Like That (JOLT) pilot project, which was launched on Wednesday, uses security cameras already installed on busses and CTrains to locate riders who aren’t offering up courtesy seating to those in need.
If the offender doesn’t leave their seat within five seconds, they will be administered a moderate electrical shock.
“A lot of people will give up their seats to a senior citizen, to a pregnant woman, that sort of thing… but not everyone is listening,” says Calgary Transit’s Ron Collins.
“So what we’ve decided is to provide a person who refuses to give up the seat with a bit of an electrical shock that will actually jolt them out of their seat and allow, for example, a senior citizen to sit there.”
WATCH: Calgary Transit’s New Passenger System
Collins says they decided to launch the new system after receiving a number of complaints from the public about people not vacating their seats for those in need.
He is assuring the public the shock will not be strong enough to cause injury, but is a powerful motivator.
“In our testing, it has been extremely effective.”
Calgary Transit says the cost to equip all of their 1,100 buses and 192 CTrain cars with the JOLT system is approximately $250,000.
WATCH: Calgary Transit’s Neil McKendrick joins Global Calgary with details on their new JOLT program.
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