If you like, skip to the end of this post to take the poll on buskers.

From last week: how do you pick up a free newspaper on transit?

Last week, I asked this question:how do you pick up a free newspaper on transit?

166 people took the poll in the end, and in fact, 26% said they don’t read any of the free newspapers at all. Of the remaining 75% who did read the paper, 33% said they grabbed it when someone handed it to them. 23% picked it up if someone had left it behind on a seat, and 19% said they get their paper from a box on the street.

In the comments, many people were very vocal about never taking a paper. For example, here’s Amy:

I never pick them up – I find the people giving them up to be so aggressive that I actively dislike the papers.

I bring a book to read, or I listed to a podcast. Plenty of good stuff to keep me occupied on transit!

Rainbow didn’t want to make waste:

Since i have the iphone, i can just read it on my iphone. Save the environment :)

Some had a different strategy though. Reva, Sally, zack and Eric all said something similar, though here’s Eric’s version of it:

I sometimes read over peoples shoulders, that’s about the extent of it.

And Tim Choi was much more democratic.

How about a little of all three? :D

When in a rush and/or there’s someone handing them out, then I’ll take it from the handler.
When not in a rush and there’s no one handing them out, then I’ll go to a box.
When in a rush and there’s no one handing them out, then grab one from a seat.

Check out the rest of the comments for more reactions!

This week: do you like having buskers perform near transit?

So here’s a fun poll that will hopefully help us out in a practical way as well.

Here’s the background. We have a busker program, and it’s going to continue as it is from April 2010 to April 2011. In January 2011, we’ll start work to develop a new program for buskers, to help figure out how we’ll handle the fees SOCAN wants, and to make the whole program more efficient (right now it takes up a LOT of staff time!).

So before we start to engage on this process, this fun post can be an informal straw poll to see what you currently think of the program and more. I’ll pass all your feedback on to our public consultation team, who is actually in charge of the busker program!

Here’s some questions for discussion:

• What kind of music do you like to hear at stations?
• Should buskers just be music or would you like other types of performance?
• At which SkyTrain stations would you like to hear buskers? (You can list more than one!)
• Do you only like buskers at certain times (e.g. morning rather than evening)?
• Anything else?