Good thing that was obvious

This morning I read a story about a woman in Montreal who was handcuffed and ticketed for not holding the escalator handrail in a Montreal subway station. It seems that the pictograms showing someone holding the escalator's handrail aren't a safety suggestion but rather an order that can result in a ticket if not followed.

This story was somewhat of a shock to me, someone who has spent a fair bit of time on the Montreal subway system. I had absolutely no idea that such an outcome was possible. I had always assumed that such signs were suggestions, not rules that could result in ticketing if not followed.

It seems that there are at least two very substantial problems with this situation. Firstly, the signage that is presently in place does not make it clear that failure to hold the handrail could result in a fine. If this is the case, as unnecessary a rule as this may be, it should at least be made clear that it is a rule rather than a suggestion. Secondly, in this particular case, it sounds as though the police officers involved issued a ticket for something that is basically never enforced. Apparently even the STM authorities do not issue tickets for this infraction. This suggests to me that the not only should the rule no longer be in force, but also that the police involved were going out of their way to harass a commuter. I can't help but thinking that the police could have handled this in a much better way, one that didn't involve tickets worth $420.