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OC Transpo

OC Transpo is the organisation that operates and plans public transport in the city of Ottawa. OC Transpo's system includes bus rapid transit, light rail, conventional bus routes, and door-to-door paratransit.

OC Transpo was established in 1948 as the Ottawa Transportation Commission, and currently operates two urban rail lines, 11 bus rapid transit (BRT) lines, and 170 regular bus routes. Ottawa is served with 18 urban rail stations, 43 BRT stations, and two intercity railway stations. Urban rail in Ottawa is called the O-Train, and the BRT is called the Transitway.

The network is designed as a hub and spoke system, where local bus routes feed Transitway lines, which themselves feed into O-Train lines.

Some OC Transpo routes also serve Gatineau in Quebec during peak periods.

In, the system had a ridership of.

System overview
OC Transpo's network is divided into several types with different service patterns and structures. Most routes are designed to feed into transportation hubs, such as major shopping malls or O-Train stations. O-Train lines have a high level of service, with full grade separation and high frequencies. Rapid bus routes are mostly grade separated, with 15 minute headways or better. Frequent and Connexion routes are similar, but operate on regular city streets and only during peak periods, respectively.

O-Train Line 1, also called the Confederation Line, is an electric crosstown rail line which uses an underground rail tunnel to bypass surface traffic in the city centre. It is operated like a regional metro, with high frequencies (5 minutes), high top speeds (80 km/h), and full grade separation. It connects to several Transitway lines on both its east and west ends, and also connects to a intercity Via Rail station. In the future, there are plans to extend the line into eastern and western suburbs stage 2 and 3 of expansion.

O-Train Line 2 (the Trillium Line), out of service since 2020 due to ongoing expansion construction, is a single tracked diesel line, built on a disused mainline freight railway. It was created as a low cost ($21 million) rail pilot project, going between Bayview station and Carleton University. It was criticised as connecting Carleton University to nowhere, although now Bayview is an interchange station with line 1. The line is currently under expansion to bring it south of the Ottawa greenbelt, as well as the airport, through a branch line. When reopened, the line will operate less frequently than line 1, with a train every 12 minutes.

Early history
Ottawa's first public transportation system began in 1886 with the operation of a horsecar system. The horse-drawn streetcars travelled back and forth from New Edinburgh to the Chaudière Bridge. The horsecar would remain a staple means of public transportation until 1891 after Thomas Ahearn founded the Ottawa Electric Railway Company. This private enterprise eventually provided heated streetcar service covering the downtown core. Electricity had been employed in a few places in Ottawa since the first demonstration of the incandescent bulb in 1883; the earliest were Parliament Hill and LeBreton Flats. In May 1885, electric lighting commenced in the city. In 1885 council contracted Ottawa Electric Light Company to install arc lamps on the city's streets.

1970s: Formation, early Transitway and first strike
Transit in Ottawa was provided by the Ottawa Transportation Commission until 1973 when transit service in the city and its suburbs was transferred under the auspices of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton. Its formal name was the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, but the service was promoted in both English and French under the OC Transpo name, whose OC initials are derived from Ottawa-Carleton. This renaming to OC Transpo was a break from the practice of simply retaining the central cities' (when they existed per se) transit system's name following regionalization as was the case for Toronto's Toronto Transit Commission and Hamilton's Hamilton Street Railway.

The 20-day 1979 strike was fought over a wage difference of a nickel and became known as "the five-cent bus strike". A pay increase of 16.5% was rejected by the union.

1980s: Transitway
In the early 1980s, OC Transpo began planning for a bus rapid transit system, the Transitway. Construction of its various stations and segments followed over many years. The first segments were from Baseline to Lincoln Fields in the west end and from Lees to Hurdman (two immediate stations) in the east end.

1990s: Second strike and shooting
The second strike for OC Transpo ran from November 25 to December 16, 1996. The strike ended under arbitration.

On Tuesday, April 6, 1999, former OC Transpo employee Pierre Lebrun, armed with a Remington Model 760 pump-action rifle, shot six people, killing four, in a shooting spree at OC Transpo's St. Laurent Boulevard garage, before killing himself. Lebrun was fired in August 1997 but later reinstated, and quit in 1998.

An inquest into the shooting revealed Lebrun was the subject of teasing for his speech impediment, and that his complaints to management were not investigated. The inquest revealed an "atmosphere of bullying", described as a "poisoned" environment by an employment equity manager. In response, OC Transpo instigated zero-tolerance policies regarding workplace harassment, a new employee-management communications program, and increased training on workplace respect. However, studies in 2003 and 2004 found there to be lingering elements of a negative work environment, and employee-management communication was reported to be strained following the 1996 strike.

2000s: Trillium Line, expansions and third strike
OC Transpo launched the O-Train diesel light rail transit (DLRT) service on October 15, 2001, as a pilot project. The service consists of one north–south line, with major points of interest including Carleton University and the South Keys Shopping Centre. In late 2014, this line became known as Trillium Line, or O-Train Line 2, to allow for expansion of the O-Train brand.

The province of Ontario ordered the amalgamation of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton and its component municipalities into a single City of Ottawa municipality. When the new local governance took effect in 2001, OC Transpo became a department of the new city.

Following amalgamation, a bilingual replacement backronym for "OC" was sought, but no suitable candidates have been found. The anachronistic acronym has been kept, instead of the costly task of replacing the decals on all buses, bus stops, bus stations, and promotional material. Thus, "OC" is an orphan initialism.

A new section of the southwest Transitway opened on December 12, 2005, between the Nepean Sportsplex and Fallowfield Station. The new section runs parallel to Woodroffe Avenue and was built at a cost of $10 million. The new section has no stations and has replaced service along Woodroffe Avenue between the Nepean Sportsplex and Fallowfield. The Transitway was further expanded south into Barrhaven with Strandherd opened on January 2, 2007. There are also long range plans for other extensions in the Orleans and Kanata areas to keep up with more growing communities.

Following the 2006 municipal election campaign, Larry O'Brien was elected as mayor and cancelled the light rail expansion project, per a campaign promise. City Council decided to annul the project by a margin of 13–11 on December 14, 2006. The proposed northbound expansions from Bayview onward were later revived with the Confederation Line project, contracted in December 2012.

OC Transpo drivers, dispatchers, and maintenance workers under Amalgamated Transit Union local 279 went on strike December 10, 2008, at 12:01am. The main causes of the strike were disagreements between the City of Ottawa and the union regarding scheduling, payroll and seniority. Rona Ambrose, the Federal Minister of Labour ordered a union membership vote on January 8, 2009, on the city's contract proposal in response to a request from mayor Larry O'Brien. Both the city and the union published their positions on respective websites. Vote results released on January 9, 2009, revealed that of those eligible to vote, 64% rejected the offer.

Meetings were held with a mediator throughout the month, but talks were repeatedly broken off. The ATU had requested to send all issues not related to scheduling to arbitration, which the city refused as it requested all issues to be sent to an arbitrator. As the strike entered the 50th day, Ambrose, who had initially refused to table back-to-work legislation, announced that such legislation would be introduced. However, on January 29, the city and the ATU reached a deal that sent every issue to binding arbitration, thus ending the 51-day-long strike. On February 2, 2009, the O-Train Trillium Line started service after being out of service due to the strike. Buses followed the following Monday, February 9, 2009. Not all buses returned at once and OC Transpo said that all buses and routes were due to return by April 6, 2009. OC Transpo offered free transit for a week. December pass holders could either use their December passes until March or could get a refund. December pass holders were also subject to a 60% discount on March passes in order to win back transit users.

2010s: Confederation Line and bus collisions
In December 2012, Ottawa City Council approved a major infrastructure project to build a 12.5 km east–west light metro line, the Confederation Line through the downtown to replace the existing BRT by 2019.

On September 18, 2013, a double-decker OC Transpo bus, running on Route 76 from Barrhaven to downtown at 8:48 a.m., collided with a Toronto-bound Via Rail passenger train at a level crossing, equipped with active warning systems, near Fallowfield Station in Ottawa's southwest end. Six people on the bus (including the driver) were killed and at least 30 others were injured, of which at least eight were critically injured. There were no injuries or fatalities to passengers or crew of the train. The cause of the accident is unknown at this time. It was announced the following year that Route 76 would be retired and changed to route 72 in recognition of those who died in the accident. Incidentally, this route was spotted under a crossing gate at the Barrhaven Crossing Plaza on November 6, 2014; although no accident occurred, it sparked a lot of fear and questions in Barrhaven on whether these crossings are safe.

On January 11, 2019, another accident involving a double decker occurred, this time at Westboro station. The bus, operating Route 269, collided with the station's shelter shearing off part of the roof. Three people were killed (initially reported as two passengers, and one bystander from the platform. Later corrected to all three deaths were passengers) and 23 people were injured.

After several delays, the Confederation Line opened to the public on September 14, 2019. This line is also marketed as O-Train Line 1.

2020s: O-Train maintenance and COVID-19 intervention
The Confederation Line continued to suffer from reliability issues throughout the first quarter of 2020. This is in contrast to the Trillium Line, which had a lower ridership and different technology, but generally better reliability. In response to this, and due to lower ridership in 2020, OC Transpo scheduled several temporary closures of Line 1, allowing Rideau Transit Maintenance to work on the line and improve it's reliability. During maintenance, the R1 bus route replaced train service.

On March 16, 2020, as a preventative measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, OC Transpo began limiting front door boarding and seating to riders with accessibility needs. All other customers were required to board at the back of the bus. As a result, cash fares were neither accepted nor enforced on buses, but a valid fare was required to begin a trip at an O-Train station. Hand sanitizer was installed on all Line 1 stations, and later installed at most Transitway stations. From June 15, 2020, to June 10, 2022, the agency required employees and riders to wear face masks while riding busses and trains, and inside all stations.

On May 3, 2020, the Trillium Line was shut down for construction and expansion. Bus replacement service is provided by Route 2 from Bayview to South Keys.

On August 8, 2021, an empty train on the Confederation Line derailed while switching tracks after leaving Tunney's Pasture after one of the ten axles derailed. There were no injuries.

On September 19, 2021, a train with passengers on the Confederation Line derailed before entering Tremblay station after two axles became dislodged from the second car. After leaving Tremblay station in a derailed state, the train increased speed to about 35 km/h, crossed a bridge over Riverside Drive, struck a signal mast and switch heater and finally came to a stop between Tremblay and Hurdman station using train-initiated emergency braking. There were no injuries.

The city of Ottawa's public transport system has historically catered to exclusively 9 to 5 public employees, a population that largely switched to remote work during COVID-19. This, combined with decades of underinvestment and thinned resources, has led to OC Transpo having a poor ridership recovery rate from before COVID; sitting at only 70% as of 2023. Council estimates that ridership will return to pre pandemic levels by 2030.

The low ridership recovery rate put OC Transpo into a rough financial position, forcing them to raise fares, and potentially forcing them to cancel Stage 3 of the O-Train expansion. Despite this, city staff remain hopeful for the future of the project, with current mayor, Mark Sutcliffe, pointing out that the project would have always require funding from the federal or provincial governments anyway, and so OC Transpo budget shortfalls shouldn't affect it. City staff view this as a natural growing pain of such a large city building project, and are hopeful and confident they will get through it, through various means, including raising taxes, increasing fares, or lobbying higher levels of government.

Features
OC Transpo has a fleet of 944 buses that run on regular streets, all of which are fully accessible low-floor buses. OC Transpo uses many articulated buses to provide service. Some of the routes that run on the Transitway, including the city's most-used bus routes, are served almost exclusively by articulated buses (e.g., routes 57, 61, 62, and 75). Peak hour connexion routes are served primarily by Double Decker buses. In 2001, a pilot diesel-powered light rail service project, the original O-Train known today as the Trillium Line, was introduced. The local government announced expansion plans for the light rail to other parts of Ottawa, including a possible link to the Ottawa International Airport. Service to Gatineau would have also been possible, over the nearby Prince of Wales railway bridge over the Ottawa River. However, on December 14, 2006, City Council led by Mayor Larry O'Brien cancelled the north-south light rail expansion project. A new model of the project, to have a citywide integrated light rail system, was made, with work beginning in 2013 and will be completed in 2023. This new project envisions fully grade separated rapid transit service on the original Transitways from Baseline station or Moodie dr. in the west to Trim Park and Ride in the east. The gap between the east end west branches of Transitway will be replaced by a new downtown Subway tunnel under Queen and Rideau streets with three underground stations. The O-Train Trillium Line will be extended to Riverside South and will include a spur to the Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport, thus creating direct airport to downtown service. As for the suburbs, they will be served by 65 km of new Transitways. The first phase of the project, called the Confederation Line includes 12.5 km of rail between Tunney's Pasture and Blair, including the downtown subway. Ottawa has a relatively extensive rapid transport network compared to other North American cities of its size, and relatively high ridership. This was initially seen on the Transitway, a bus rapid transit system where buses travel on dedicated roadways and lanes. The Transitway lines that converged onto the city centre created a transportation bottleneck, with buses bunching heavily on city streets, with this in turn constricting the effective capacity and frequency of the entire Transitway network. In 2019, interior parts of the Transitway networked were converted to light rail, including a downtown rail tunnel, to massively increase the system's capacity, and to allow OC Transpo to reallocate its limited bus fleet to provide service elsewhere. The decision to convert the BRT network to rail was chosen due to trains being significantly more cost effective for the capacity needed, and an underground bus tunnel being completely impractical for the scale of service required.

For a number of years, OC Transpo has carried bicycle racks on some routes as a part of the "Rack & Roll" campaign. These racks carry up to two bicycles at the front of the bus and fold up against the bus when not in use. As of 2021, all buses in the fleet are equipped with bike racks. Cyclists may use the racks at any time of day, provided there is room for the cyclist on board the bus. Traditionally, the racks have been available only between April and October, and there has been much debate over continuing the program throughout the year. Bicycles can be brought on board O-Train at all times of the year. As of 2023, though, a permanent winter pilot has been introduced.

There are four bus depots located throughout the city. The largest and headquarters is located at 1500 St. Laurent Boulevard, with two other smaller but frequently used depots being located at 168 Colonnade Road (Merivale Garage) and the other on Queensview Drive (Pinecrest Garage). A major new maintenance depot which opened its doors in 2010 is located on Industrial Avenue.

A public survey done by OC Transpo in 2023 found that the average length of a trip is 51 minutes. In the same survey, feedback provided by participants (both riders and drivers), indicated a strong desire for better reliability above all else. In addition, Ottawa has struggled with public transport reliability in recent years, further contributing to lost ridership, with public transport advocate Kari Elliott saying "As the system becomes unreliable, we end up in this death spiral. Because it’s unreliable, people are taking their car. And because they’re taking their car, traffic is really bad. And then transit gets stuck in traffic and becomes even more unreliable".

Both advocates and bus drivers suggest that OC Transpo paint more bus lanes throughout the city, as a measure to retain and grow reliability and ridership.

Routes
OC Transpo has 170 bus routes (as of October 6, 2019) that are grouped both by their number and the colour with which they are represented on system maps and on bus stop flags.

A major route overhaul and changes in the network will occur in spring or summer 2024 due to the opening of line 2 and 4. Most existing routes will see changes, with some routes being taken out completely. There will also be many new routes to accommodate these changes.

Fleet

Ottawa primarily uses Nova Bus LFS regular buses and New Flyer D60LFR articulated buses. The city also uses Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMC double decker buses. All buses are mostly, but not entirely, low floor, and have two or three sets of doors.

For the O-Train, Ottawa uses custom Alstom Citadis Spirit electric light rail vehicles on line 1. On line 2, imported European train models are used, Alstom Coradia LINT and Stadler FLIRTs. Despite being referred to locally as light rail, the line 2 trains are actually heavy rail vehicles.

Line 1's Citadis Spirit trains have been riddled with issues, and have garnered a bad reputation by the media and the public. In the first two years of service, they suffered repeated faults, including, among other things, derailments, computer failures, and cracked wheels. The Citadis Spirits were custom built for O-Train line 1 by Alstom, the French rolling stock manufacturer, and the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry report found that there were several causes for the vehicles' poor reliability. The vehicles push what an LRT can do, and are treated more like heavy rail subway vehicles than the light rail vehicles they are in reality. In addition to this, the OC Transpo workforce was inexperienced operating the vehicles, and the construction of line 1 and the trains that run on it was heavily rushed (including a very rushed testing phase), as well as human error, and an unrealistically low budget for the project, all contributing to their faults.

The New Flyer D60LFR was chosen for the bus network because of a deal New Flyer made to the city in August 2010, replacing 226 of its older underpowered 60-foot D60LF articulated buses (purchased between 2001 and 2004) with brand new D60LFR models. The bus exchange was completed in March 2011. OC Transpo was given incentives as part of the deal, including rebates on the trading-in of the old buses and a credit on new parts. Eighty new D60LFR articulated buses were also purchased from New Flyer, bringing the combined total to 306 buses. All of the 2001–2004 D60LFs are now retired. Some of the older New Flyer D60LF sixty-foot articulated buses have caught on fire during the summer of 2006 and the Summer/Fall of 2010, due to overheating engines, effectively putting them out of service.

On July 12, 2011, OC Transpo announced that all remaining high floor buses were retired and thus all OC Transpo buses now have low floors, can be further lowered for strollers and walkers, and have flip-out ramps for wheelchairs. The full fleet is air-conditioned for Ottawa's short hot and humid summers.

Ottawa announced that it would be adding 75 double-decker buses to its fleet on August 24, 2012, and were put in service in October. They were previously trialed in 2006 and 2007 citation. They were added to the fleet primarily for their higher seated capacity compared to the articulated buses in use (86 versus 55), and are employed mainly on commuter oriented "Connexion" routes. Part of their introduction was also due to them being seen as spectacle that could increase system ridershp, and in practice, 41 percent of riders and drivers say they prefer the bilevels, while 30 percent prefer single deck buses. The decision to purchase double decker buses was also supported by them being less expensive to run than articulated buses, and taking up less road space.

The maintenance of the fleet was complicated by adding buses from another manufacturer (OC Transpo already had buses from New Flyer and Orion before purchasing the double-deckers from Alexander Dennis). In cold and wet weather, condensation is prone to collecting on the roof of the upper deck, dripping on passengers below.

Two of the new double-decker buses were in service as of September 10, 2012, and were temporarily used on peak period routes 22 and 30 (serving Orleans). This lasted until a sinkhole on Regional Road 174 was fixed in mid-September.

Bus fleet
, OC Transpo has a fleet consisting of 740 buses, made up of 7 bus models:

Electric buses
OC Transpo has purchased 4 electric New Flyer XE40 buses, which were delivered in November 2021, and entered service in early 2022. On June 7, 2021, a plan was announced that, if approved, would see 450 electric buses purchased by 2027, and full fleet electrification by 2036.

Expansion fleet
OC Transpo currently has seven four-car DEMU Stadler FLIRT from Stadler Rail for use when the Stage 2 improvements of the Trillium Line are completed. When these trains are introduced, the Alstom LINT DMU trains will be used on the Airport spur, between South Keys and Airport stations.

An expansion fleet of 38 Alstom Citadis Spirit LRVs will also be built for the Stage 2 vehicle additional requirements for use on Line 1.

Garages
OC Transpo currently has 5 bus garages and two rail yards that house the fleet, and are also where vehicle maintenance is carried out. The garages are as follows:

 * St. Laurent Garage. Opened in 1959, capacity of 275 buses. OC Transpo headquarters are also located on property.
 * St. Laurent North Garage. Opened in 1987 and has a capacity of 207 buses. Located adjacent to St. Laurent Garage.
 * Industrial Garage. Opened in 2010 as a purpose-built garage for 167 double-decker and articulated buses.
 * Pinecrest Garage. Opened 1976 and has a capacity of 193 buses. Located near Pinecrest Rd. and Highway 417.
 * Merivale (Colonnade) Garage. Opened in 1978 and has a capacity of 215 buses. Located in Nepean between Merivale Rd. and Prince of Wales Dr. Formerly known as the Colonnade Garage, as it is located on Colonnade Rd. South.
 * Walkley Yard. Houses the Trillium Line DMU fleet. Located in the CNR Walkley Yard, off of Albion Rd. North. Opened 2001.
 * Belfast Yard. Constructed to house the Confederation Line LRV fleet. Complete in 2018. Located on Belfast Road, with the rail access in between Tremblay and St Laurent Stations.

Fares
OC Transpo fares can be paid in cash or with a Presto card. The latter method must be purchased in advance at various retail outlets, ticket machines or stations.

Transfers are printed for passengers upon boarding by the driver (cash only). Transfers are integrated in the Presto cards when using the e-wallet. Such transfers are valid:
 * for 90 minutes when issued during weekdays or Saturday, from 6:30am to 6:00pm
 * for 105 minutes when issued Sunday, or from either 2:45am to 6:30am or 6:00pm to 10:30pm during the rest of the week
 * until 4:30am the same day when issued from midnight to 2:45am
 * until 4:30am the following day when issued from 10:30pm to 11:59pm

In 1951, OC Transpo had a fare of 10 cents, equivalent to $1.22 in 2024 dollars. The fares have since increased on a regular basis, although discounted fares were previously available with tickets. In 2012, a senior fare of $2.00 was introduced, although it was increased in subsequent years.

Current fares as of January 1, 2024 are:
 * $3.85 for adults 18+, and youth 13–17
 * $2.95 for seniors
 * $1.75 for EquiPass and Community (Presto card only)
 * Free for children 12 and under

The adult, youth and senior fares consist of cash fares. These fares receive a 5¢ discount when paying with O-Payment (credit card), Presto (only physical cards are accepted), ParaPay or debit.

DayPass and multi-day passes
The monthly pass, introduced in 1976, offers the lowest price per day for unlimited rides on OC Transpo. Paper passes were discontinued by 2017, with Presto monthly passes being the sole option.

OC Transpo introduced the DayPass at $5 ($7.16 in 2017 dollars) per voucher or $6 ($8.60 in 2017 dollars) cash on July 1, 1998. By 2000, the cash price matched the $5 voucher price. The price for both increased to $6 ($7.64 in 2017 dollars) in 2003, and since then, DayPass fares were gradually increased to reach $10.25 in 2017. DayPass vouchers were no longer sold since July 1, 2009, leaving only cash and tickets on the bus as a method of payment.

The Family DayPass was launched concurrently with the DayPass. At launch, it was available on Sundays and statutory holidays, allowing up to two adults and youth (age 12 or older) to ride the bus with up to four children (age 11 or younger) at the same price of a DayPass. With the discontinuation of DayPass vouchers on July 1, 2009, the Family DayPass was also made available on Saturdays.

On January 1, 2018, OC Transpo launched multi-day passes (3, 5, or 7 days). This allows multiple days of DayPass service, up to a week, to be purchased in advanced at a lower cost. Multi-day passes cannot be used as a Family DayPass, cannot be loaded on a Presto card and are emitted as a paper transfer. Passes are activated immediately upon purchase.

Discontinued fares
Express fares were premium peak period bus routes, treated as a second fare zone by OC Transpo. Express bus passes for adults and students, and regular senior bus passes, were also accepted. On January 1, 2017, the Express fare was discontinued, and Express routes were rebranded as Connexion routes. Since this change, the entire OC Transpo network is treated as a single fare zone. The agency also cited the Confederation Line (Line 1), which opened in September 2019, as a reason for discontinuing the Express fare.

Rural Express fares were introduced on six routes on July 2, 2002, as a third fare zone. The cash fare was $4.75 (equivalent to $6.48 in 2020 dollars), while the ticket fare was $3.40 (equivalent to $4.64 in 2020 dollars) by using four tickets. Rural Express bus passes for adults and students, and regular senior bus passes, were also accepted. The cash fare increased to $5 in 2006, and later to $5.25. On July 2, 2012, the Rural Express fare was discontinued, with all Rural Express routes being repurposed as Express routes. Para Transpo continues to operate a rural fare zone.

Other prices
Tickets for the O-Train light rail line were initially sold for $2 each at ticket vending machines in 2002 ($2.60 in 2016 dollars) when paying cash, lower than the $2.50 bus cash fare but pricier than the $1.70 ($2.21 in 2016 dollars) ticket fare at the time. Train tickets can be exchanged for a bus transfer on board of an OC Transpo bus. O-Train ticket prices increased over time, but remained lower compared to bus cash fares until July 2013, when OC Transpo increased O-Train ticket prices from $2.85 to $3.40 to match the bus cash fare. This represents an increase of over 19% and happened after the Presto card launch completed. This card is accepted at O-Train stations for a lower train fare. Bus tickets and DayPass vouchers cannot be used on the O-Train. Bus transfers, however, are accepted.

Monthly and annual passes are also available for all route classes with cost differences for adults, students, and seniors. Passes require an OC Transpo photo ID card, which is available at extra cost. Additionally, Ecopasses (reduced-rate monthly passes) are available through participating employers in the city, providing applicable OC Transpo riders with single-card indefinite passes in exchange for a flat bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly payroll deduction.

In July 2008, fares were increased by 7.5% because of a shortage in funding for the City of Ottawa. This fare hike was supposed to be in effect until 2010 including a 6.5% hike in 2009. This meant Ottawa residents saw regular adult passes rise from $73 a month to $81 and adult express passes from $90 to $101 a month. However, cash fares remained the same.

On 18 January 2013, OC Transpo starting the final testing of its Presto Card deployment as part of the NEXT-ON program. Ten thousand customers were able to order a Presto Card online or pick one up at select OC Transpo transitway stations, activate it, and use it for OC Transpo's final testing of the loadable cards. As of January 2013, over 10,000 Presto cards have been distributed. A limited number of Presto cards were available at Baseline Station on 22 January 2013, and at Fallowfield Station on 24 January 2013. The final full release date for Presto in Ottawa was on 18 May 2013. Cards can be either loaded with cash and used like tickets, or loaded with as a monthly pass, which unlike the photo pass, is usable by family and friends. As of 2017, yearly and monthly photo passes have been discontinued, as they are not accepted at the new fare gates being installed along the O-Train.

The Province is encouraging all Ontario transit systems to adopt Presto, and the OC Transpo installation has been complex, requiring installation of readers at the front doors of all buses and all doors of articulated and double-decker buses, as well as a computer with a Presto fare database on each bus. The database was originally refreshed every night with updates of the day's Presto fare purchases when the buses return to the garages; this required users to wait up to 24 hours before cash loaded onto their card accounts is recognized by the readers. In 2014, the readers were upgraded to refresh up to 6 times a day using cellular data. There are now new fare gates and ticket vending machines at all O-Train stations. Unlike the TTC and GO Transit facilities, OC Transpo did not launch full Presto ticket machines until November 2017, when all O-Train Line 2 stations except for Bayview featured a new fare gate system. The full machines allow riders to check and reload a card prior to boarding.

In January 2021, OC Transpo launched the Bikesecure program which allows secure bike parking spots at a select number of transit stations to be reserved for a monthly fee.

Para Transpo
Para Transpo is an accessible paratransit service available to Ottawa patrons who find it extremely difficult or impossible to use the conventional OC Transpo routes. Service is provided directly to the residences of eligible users who book trip appointments with a call centre at least one day in advance. Para Transpo drivers will provide some assistance to passengers to board designated vehicle and to access building entrances.

Para Transpo operations were contracted to First Student Canada, previously operated by Laidlaw. On January 1, 2008, the City of Ottawa assumed complete control of this service.

The transit strike of 2008 did not interrupt Para Transpo service. However, Para Transpo service did encounter delays, facing the traffic increase due to the strike.

Safety and security
All major stations are equipped with various safety and security features for the public, including callboxes, payphones, CCTV cameras around the stations, along with well lit and heated shelters. On train platforms, there are warning strips and barriers to keep passengers at a safe distance from the tracks. On vehicles, the newer D60lfr models were installed with passenger assistance alarms (PAAs) at the rear of the bus. They were also added on double decker busses toward the upper deck. When pressed, it will notify the operator of an emergency, incident, and/or someone in need of assistance. Other safety features on transit busses include handrails for holding when standing, and CCTV cameras providing surveillance. After 9 pm, Nightstop can be used to request the operator to stop at a closer location than that of a specific bus stop. OC Transpo also employs many Special Constables to patrol stations and respond to calls involving OC Transpo vehicles, stations, or stops, and work in close partnership with the Ottawa Police Service.

Advertising
Advertising on OC Transpo buses is contracted to Pattison Outdoor Advertising. Advertising on bus shelters is contracted to Branded Cities.

Amalgamated Transit Union – Local 279
The Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 279 is the OC Transpo employees' union with of over 1800 members consisting of bus and rail operators as well as other staffing positions within the company, including mechanics located at various garage depots throughout the city.

title: OC Transpo


text:
Plok!

Plok! is a side-scrolling platform game developed by British studio Software Creations using concepts and characters created and owned by Ste and John Pickford. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in late 1993 by Tradewest in North America, Nintendo in Europe, and Activision in Japan. Players portray the hood-headed titular protagonist, the king of the island Akrillic who is protecting it from fleas spawned by the Flea Queen, who is under the island's ground, as well as other bosses trying to overthrow Plok's power. His versatility lies in his four separable limbs, which can be used to shoot at targets and enemies, and several power-ups scattered throughout its colorful stages as "presents."

Plok!'s history began in the late 1980s as a self-funded coin-op project by the two Pickford brothers named Fleapit; they worked on it while at Zippo Games and programmed it for Rare's 'Razz Board' hardware. It was cancelled in 1990 following the closure of Zippo Games, but was revived as a SNES game developed at Software Creations after the Pickfords were promoted to higher positions, with Ste becoming an art director and John a producer. Software Creations self-funded the game with the Pickfords owning intellectual property rights. The game was to be ported for the Sega Genesis, but the reissue was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Plok! was positively received by critics, who praised its innovative ideas, variety, presentation, versatile playable character, and level design; however, some expressed skepticism of it being the same cutesy colorful platform title as many others, and the Pickfords attributed its underwhelming sales to market saturation of mascot platformers.

Gameplay
Plok! has two difficulty modes: "Normal" which features the entire game, and "Child's Play" which omits the harder stages and decreases the speed and hit points of enemies. "Plokontinues" are earned if four P-L-O-K tokens are collected, and a token is garnered if a level is finished without dying; if a Game Over occurs, the player will restart with a score of 0, three lives, and at the place the Plokontinue was received. Saving is limited to two "Permanent Continue Positions" after the completion of the Bobbins Brothers and Rockyfella boss fights which the player can return to even after the game is reset, and there is no password feature.

Plok can launch any of his four limbs (two arms and two legs) at will to damage enemies as projectiles from his arms and feet. While a limb instantly returns to Plok's body if it hits an enemy, it takes longer if it does not collide with anything. Limbs can also fire through certain barriers like rock pillars. The only limitation is that he cannot shoot limbs while somersaulting. In later levels, some puzzles involve having to "sacrifice" one of Plok's limbs to activate scenery-changing targets. Once a limb hits a switch, it is placed on a hanger that is usually next to the target. Some targets also require certain limbs. Once Plok is limbless, he moves by bouncing and becomes harder to control.

Plok's secondary attack takes the form of "Speed Blade," a buzzsaw-like jump that not only gives him increased speed as items but also dispatches enemies at the highest damage possible. Plok can pick up shells, which award extra lives and serve as ammunition for a special amulet received partway through the game. The amulet converts shells into power for Plok's secondary attack. There are also "Magic Fruits" that can heal Plok's health; the more he punches a fruit, the bigger it gets and more health he receives. Less frequent are bigger "Golden Fruits" that increase Plok's energy to its fullest. In some levels, some fruits can either send Plok to a timed bonus stage where he must reach a goal or a strange room where he must collect all the shells to progress. Completing these will have Plok warp to the next level with some of them being able to skip boss fights.

"Presents" temporarily upgrades Plok into a character from his favourite movies, such as "Plocky" which equips him with boxing gloves, "Vigilante Plok" which makes him a flamethrower-equipped character a la the "Ploxterminator," the Deerstalker-wearing "Squire Plok" equipped with a blunderbuss, a gun-slinging "Cowboy Plok" based on westerns, and "Rocket Plok" where is equipped with multiple rocket launchers. Presents in the Fleapit yield high-tech, futuristic vehicles with weapons, such as a unicycle with a water cannon, an "off-road truck" with a rocket launcher, a jetpack with lasers, a motorbike with grenades, a tank, a bomb-dropping helicopter, a flying saucer with plasma cannons, and a pair of spring pogo shoes.

The player encounters several different enemies, such as the aforementioned fleas. For fleas, for the player to complete the level, Plok must destroy every single one of them in every level (with the exceptions of Cotton Island, Legacy Island, and Fleapit), where the last one drops a flag which levitates to its flag pole and allows the player to progress.

Plot
As king, Plok dwells on Akrillic, a large island in the fictional archipelago of Polyesta. Plok wakes up one morning and notices his big square flag on the pole on his house's rooftop has been stolen, and goes out searching for it. He spots the flag on Cotton Island from far away and sails to it to find the flag. Plok mistakes some imposter flags for his own, including a pair of underpants and a striped scarf, becoming irritated in the process. Plok encounters the two giant creatures who are responsible for placing the fake flags, the Bobbins Brothers, whom Plok's grandpappy had warned him about, and fights them.

Although successfully defeating the Bobbins Brothers and getting his big square flag back, Plok sails back to Akrillic to find the island has been infested and overtaken by "fleas", two-legged blue insects that hatch from eggs and hop around; Plok learns that the theft of his large flag was simply a decoy to lure him away from Akrillic. Plok travels through Akrillic, defeating every single flea on the surface to reclaim his island.

Partway through the game, Plok places the big square flag back where it belongs outside his home, and then takes a break as he sits on a foot of the statue of his grandfather, Grandpappy Plok, wishing he had found an amulet to help him deal with the fleas. He takes a nap and has an odd dream of his grandfather's search for an amulet 50 years ago. In the dream, the player plays as Grandpappy Plok as he sails from Akrillic to Legacy Island, and shares the same experience as what his grandson is doing now, traveling through bizarre obstacles, discovering artifacts (including Rockyfella ),     and dealing with the same Bobbin Brothers as well as their third brother Irving. Having defeated them, Grandpappy finally dug up an amulet and sailed back to Akrillic victoriously. Back to the present day, Plok wakes up and discovers that the amulet is located at the bottom of the statue. Plok's mission on getting his island back continues, now with the ability to "charge" a buzzsaw jump ability by sacrificing the shells he has collected.

Plok then heads into various locations around the island while facing other creatures trying to overthrow Akrillic: Penkinos, a group of inflatable, floating magicians of mysterious origin living in the North of the island; Womack, a spider living in the island's center with its long legs being weak points;  and Rockyfella, the spirit of the island's soil residing under in the mountains of the island's southeast who is vengeful against Plok for the flagpoles he dug in the ground. After clearing out all the enemies on the island, Plok journeys into the source of the fleas, the Fleapit, where he uses various weapon vehicles. He faces off with the leader of the fleas who hatched them, the Flea Queen, using a high-tech "secret Super-Vehicle" armed with bug spray to defeat her. After the showdown, he returns home to sleep on his green chair.

1988: Rare hires Zippo Games
In the summer of 1988, Ste and John Pickford, workers at Zippo Games which was owned by John and their friend Steve Hughes, were struggling to complete games for 16-bit Atari ST and Amiga computers, many getting canceled. They learned Rare was looking for developers of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) titles, which the console had yet to gain steam in the United Kingdom; despite finding the 8-bit system "horribly overpriced and terribly underpowered", the Pickfords took the offer due to financial necessity and their love of the works of Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper's previous company Ultimate Play the Game. Zippo Games was the only company to have been consulted by Rare for NES work. Despite initial skepticism against the NES, the Pickfords' experience working on Ironsword, as well as playing Mario and Zelda games on the console as required by the Stamper brothers, gained them an appreciation for the console and changed their development focus from being on technical finesse to the player's experience, which is what they had for Plok!.

1988–1989: Fleapit
John, while Ste was drawing the shop screen for Ironsword, came up with an idea of a character with a hangman's hood; Ste doodled it in a small margin of the layout. The detachable limbs were also conceived in the sketch, as below the character was an arrow pointing to a pile of his parts. John then thought of a game where the player had to capture all jumping fleas in a land, which the two decided to have the hangman be the playable character. Plok's name was then spontaneously coined when John was placing letters from a cassette tape cover on his computer mouse; his full name was "Plok the Exploding Man" to describe his separable design. After more motivation from John, Ste moved to clear sheets of paper to do more sketches, where the character's colors, poses, size (32x40) and "extreme expressions" involving an opening mouth were conceived. After the formation of these ideas, Chris Stamper went to Zippo Games to introduce a coin-op hardware he designed named the Razz Board. In addition to being impressed by the hardware's innovative graphics system, the Pickfords also saw an opportunity to make a "real arcade game" like the ones in their youth; they previously worked on an Amiga-based coin-op system for World Darts, but never a "real" arcade title. As a result, the Pickfords made a deal with Rare to use the hardware to produce their dream game as well as to own the game property and receive a big chunk of revenue from board sales; however, the deal also made all of the funding up to the brothers. The project was named Fleapit.

Ste vaguely recalled Fleapit in a 2014 interview, comparing its gameplay to Excitebots: Trick Racing (2009) in that the player had to catch one of several flying footballs to score a touchdown in the middle of a level; he reported the product being only a little more "primitive" than Plok!, featuring stages only scrolling horizontal and vertically, more "set pieces or one-off levels," backgrounds made of food like sausages and doughnuts, and a space level.

As development went on, Rare was profiting mostly from selling NES titles, making them less focused on Razz Board games such as Fleapit. In 1989, Rare, the first company outside of Japan to have a Game Boy, instructed Zippo Games to develop a game for the handheld console; however, this meant stopping the development of Fleapit. Rare and Zippo Games' relationship worsened; Zippo never completed a Game Boy product as instructed and was bought out by Rare in 1990 to be renamed Rare Manchester, which was shut down. Fleapit was cancelled half-completed in 1990 as a result of Zippo Games closing and funds running out; Ste admitted in 2014 a desire to produce a coin-op caused improper business decisions, such as rejecting more financially-rewarding console work.

Late in Fleapit's development, the brothers obtained comedian Chris Sievey to voice Plok, contacting him in 1990 via the number on the name of one of his songs, "969 1909." He encountered Sievey in his Frank Sidebottom costume at The Ritz venue, and offered to work for free; however, a short time later, Fleapit was cancelled, and Sievey never voiced the character.

1990–1993: From Zippo to Software Creations
After leaving Zippo, John phoned Richard Hay, the head of Software Creations, the first company outside of Japan to have a development kit for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Hay hired the Pickfords right away to use it to design and program Equinox (1993), a sequel to the NES title Solstice (1990). The Pickfords were eventually promoted to higher positions, with Ste becoming an art director and John a producer.

On the side, the Pickfords continued working on Fleapit, coming up with new characters and locations as well as doing more pitch illustrations. Near the completion of Equinox, the Pickfords showcased Fleapit to Hay, pitching it under a new name: Plok! While the brothers and Hay considered many consoles, such as the NES, Super NES, and Game Boy, only a Super NES title came into fruition. Development once again involved self-funding, albeit on the part of Software Creations instead of just the Pickfords.

Plok!'s team consisted of the two brothers as producers, art directors, and designers; John Buckley as programmer; Lyndon Brooke as graphic artist; another set of brothers, Tim and Geoff Follin, developing the music and sound; Kevin Edwards and Stephen Ruddy as compressors; Dan Whitworth creating additional graphics; and an 18-year-old Chun Wah Kong joining in spring 1993 as a tester. Software Creations, for some of their games, hired animators recently laid-off from a Manchester studio, and Whitworth was no exception; he animated the title screen (where Plok plays a harmonica to the theme song) while Ste was on a two-week holiday, and Whitworth's work was enthusiastically-received by the staff.

Plok! was the Pickford brothers' first experience as project managers, as well as the first time they collaborated with other developers to turn their ideas into a finished product. Buckley later admitted to Plok! being his most "proud" work. and Kong admittined that his experience as the game's tester prepared him for being lead designer on Team Soho's PlayStation 2 title The Getaway (2002): "QA is great grounding for designers. It makes you think critically about how players approach your level; how to reward curiosity if the player wanders off the beaten track; how different approaches could break the game."

Although Pickfords allowed Buckley and Brooke to offer many contributions, development was not without conflict, the biggest argument occurring late in development regarding difficulty; while Buckley and Brooks felt it was proper, the Pickfords found it overbearing. To settle the dispute, the first eight stages which were originally for Cotton Island were moved later as the Grandpappy Plok dream stages, with eight new easier Cotton Island stages created. According to Buckley, dream levels were conceived to vary the pacing, particularly with the Amulet. Kong also reported one of the publishers wanted the first level's difficulty decreased, so the staff decreased the bouncing sprouts' hit points from two to one; however, in the tutorial segment of the final game, the sprouts take two hits as Plok fires an extra arm. While Software Creations did have collectible continues (named "Plokontinues") for Plok!, it did not produce a save battery due to being too costly, and passwords were scrapped out of fear gaming magazines would spread them around.

Kong recalled most of the game was completed close to the end of Equinox's testing.

Graphics and art
Many of Plok!'s visuals were formulated during its Fleapit stage, where it was being programmed for the Razz Board. The hardware had an unusual system that executed higher-depth graphics and performed better with fewer data. Unlike other hardwares that used bitmap grids that encode colors and transparency through binary numbers, the Razz Board hardware stored pixels as bytes, with the first six bits determining color, the seventh bit setting its vertical position relative to its predecessor, and the eighth its horizontal. For instance, using a bitmap system to create a 32-pixel line requires a grid of 1,024 pixels (32x32) with 992 of them transparent, while making the same line took only 32 bytes in Razz Board. This meant sprites weren't restrained to perfectly square sizes, which Ste took advantage of when creating the text font although setting an arbitrary limit of 22x29. For the SNES game, Brooke designed two new fonts for 16x16 and 8x8 bitmap grids: one based on Ste's font for Fleapit, in turn based on his lettering in concept drawings, and another for the silent movie-esque screens in the Legacy Island levels. Software Creations' leader and Plok! executive producer Mike Webb reported compressing 50% on the game's 16-megabit graphics data (equivalent to Street Fighter II) to eight megabits.

Fleapit was the Pickfords' first game where Ste created concept art, to be more professional and adapt to an increase in presentation to buyers in the industry; according to Ste, this changed the process of green-lighting a game just by starting programming: "Everyone in the industry was self taught, and there were no standards or expectations of how a new game should progress. I remember it being a struggle to justify spending work time drawing pretty pictures which wouldn't actually contribute to the game." Ste added shades to the concept art using Letratone as an easy method to a businesslike aesthetic. Ste drew the illustrations in black and white, due to being focused more on shape than on color and photocopying technology only allowing monochrome prints. The color scheme was formulated originally for an 8-bit arcade title; to achieve a "natural" look, colors were scrunched into extreme areas of the RGB color wheel. When the project turned into a 16-bit SNES game, the color scheme (although generally the same) was more detailed with a wider palette, and Ste used magic markers to color concept art; it was used not only for the game but also for other titles and products of a potential franchise and as illustrations for the instruction manual.

John's first plan for taking the most advantage of the Razz Board was with how Plok was animated; since he had separable limbs, all of his six parts were independently-moving static sprites. The separated limbs of Plok made him easy to animate and took less graphical data, as static parts could be coded to move and rotate instead of creating multiple frames. Ste also had Plok's boots and gloves be gigantic in order for his detachable-limb design to work to its full potential. The fleas, although animated traditionally with frames, were only two legs to make animating extreme poses simpler and for the sprite to not be too busy. Ste reported "5 or 6" frames for all of the fleas' movements. For the SNES console, Brooke altered the design of Plok and the fleas only slightly, but Plok's animation method was transformed; the SNES has the traditional bitmap method of executing pixels, thus he was animated frame-by-frame by Brooke.

Concepts and design
Fleapit characters not in Plok! include Armstrong, a "mini-version" of Rockyfella; and Suki, a manga-style character who ran an item shop. The Bobbins Brothers and Womack were transferred from Fleapit (although Womack went through a massive redesign by Brooke that Ste appreciated ) while the Penkinos were originally-conceived for Plok!.

The "floating" limb movements were coded in John's first prototype of Fleapit, with the idea of removing limbs incorporated later on as the Pickfords experimented. The idea of costume and vehicle power-up had also been around since Fleapit, although the set of power-ups changed with only the helicopter carrying over; Fleapit-only power-ups included "Robo Plok," a robot form that improved maneuverability and was inspired by Ro-Jaws from the 2000 AD comics; "Ninja Plok" which armed him with an endless amount of throwing stars; and "Super Plok," a superhero with flying abilities. Plok also had the "smart bomb," an ability where he enraged himself to the point of exploding and wiping out all enemies on the screen (as well as his own limbs).

By the start of the development of the SNES game, Fleapit's code had been lost; thus, Buckley started programming based on what he saw in VHS footage of the game, including Plok attacking fleas with his limbs and skid-ing down slanted platforms. Brooke conceived triggering parts of the scenery with limbs, reasoning they "looked a bit rough" when constantly looping; however, carrying it out was difficult due to affecting the collision detection and causing Plok's movements to be jolty. He came up with the limb-holding coat hangers two weeks later. The vehicles were left for the final stages, as incorporating them into earlier levels would've taken too much work to "balance" them with those stages' other aspects.

Audio
When it came to NES and SNES titles, Software Creations was notable for pushing the limits of a hardware's sound, including with Plok! Work on Plok!'s soundtrack, composed by Tim and Geoff Follin, began halfway into development. It was categorized by Nintendo World Report as typical of other kid-friendly platform games, although "a bit manic, deceptively bombastic, and diverse in tone". Ste reported Geoff doing around 75% of the work and being far more open for discussion with the team, and Tim being more "elusive".

Plok! continues the Follin brothers' incorporation of old rock music influences; "A Line in the Sand", for instance, was inspired by the works of Stevie Wonder, and its guitar solo being influenced by Queen guitarist Brian May. Tim Follin composed the title song out of a guitar-played two-chord progression of "Tequila" by rock and roll group The Champs, as two guitar chord samples could fit within memory. "Lead" instruments such as an electric guitar and harmonicas were made out of simple waveforms, with the guitar's wave identical to a square. A breathing sample in the boss theme was also used in Equinox and Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (1992).

The soundtrack has been released to physical formats twice, on July 27, 2019, to cassette by CANVAS Ltd. and as a limited-edition 500-copy double vinyl on Record Store Day (18 April) 2020 by Respawned Records; Respawned's release had official song titles, liner notes, and artwork by the Pickfords, and both 180gram vinyls colored red and yellow. Rare composer David Wise has expressed admiration for Plok!, claiming his work on Donkey Kong Country to be inspired by the Follin brothers' soundtrack.

Publishing
Software Creations was so confident in Plok! the developer tried to persuade Nintendo to publish it; reception from the corporation's Japan and American branches was positive. Shigeru Miyamoto expressed a strong interest in working on the game; when Plok! was only half-finished, he wrote a letter to Hay claiming it was the third-best platform game below Sonic and Mario and that he would make it the second-greatest in the genre above Sonic but below Mario. Tony Harman, product acquisitions and development manager at Nintendo of America, also attended the studio to play Plok! four weeks within its development, and told Kay Miyamoto was amazed by the game's audio to the point of analyzing it. However, Nintendo only published Plok! in Europe, while Tradewest and Activision publishing it in North America and Japan, respectively. While Nintendo's reasons for this remain undisclosed, Ste believes that Miyamoto found it, particularly its mini-race levels, too similar to the then in-development first-party title Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

A port for the Sega Genesis was going to be released, but it was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Promotion
The Pickfords, despite owning the IP and developing Plok!, were never consulted on promotion. Tradewest set Plok!'s primary demographic at gamers six-to-fourteen years old. Although published by Tradewest in the United States, Plok! still received promotion from Nintendo of America; a complete guide and review was published in the October 1993 issue of its magazine Nintendo Power, and a two-page section in a Nintendo Player's Guide book for Mario Paint (1993) included templates of body part stamps to animate Plok and the flea enemies, and a background painting based on one of the Cotton Island levels. In the United Kingdom, Nintendo released a VHS tape, Super Mario All-Stars Video (1993); hosted by Craig Charles, the video features a segment of testers at Nintendo UK promoting upcoming games, including Plok! Club Nintendo, Germany's official Nintendo magazine, ran a comic strip where Plok races with Mario at an Olympic match in space.

Some print advertising was criticized in later years by Ste for not showing enough of the game itself. Tradewest's US print advertisement depicted the top half taken up by Double Dragon and Battletoads, the bottom half a picture of the Plok character; the only info revealed was that Plok! was published by the two other franchises. Nintendo's UK print ad depicted a faux desktop screenshot with an image of an angry old lady in the house as the wallpaper; the only Plok! visual depicted was its box art, placed in the bottom right and very small-sized.

However, other print advertisements were much more true to the game, such as Tradewest's series of comic book panel ads named The Adventures of Plok with Plok's origins at the storyline.

Plok! was first announced in June 1993; upon its announcement, an N-Force journalist called it one of the most "surreal" games in the September 1993 line-up. Tradewest presented Plok! at the summer 1993 Consumer Electronics Show; a GameFan writer called Tradewest "one of the [show's] most impressive third party line-up," highlighting Plok! as a "a colorful new action title with a lead character that hurls his arms and legs at attackers."

Contemporaneous reviews
Upon release, some critics declared Plok! the best Nintendo release of 1993 as well as another classic by the company, the best platform game of the year, and one of the all-time best in the genre. However, Plok! was compared to many other games of its kind, and even the most favorable reviewers expressed skepticism about playing another average colorful cutesy platform game. Some critics ultimately thought it was and criticized its lack of depth. A frequent comparison was with Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), particularly in its "sugary" tone and Plok's speed ball attack; GameStar's FI derogatorily labeled the titular character as "a puny version" of the Sega franchise's blue hedgehog, criticizing his weird design and calling it names such as "hot pink reddy coloured duck penguin thing" and "freaky pork chop."

However, other reviewers opined Plok as distinguished in the genre, noting innovative aspects such as the costume and weapon power-ups and limb mechanics. Reviews also enjoyed its humor, such as with Plok's limbless movements, his power-ups, and nonsensical story; Humphreys felt it would help the game be enjoyed by even the biggest detractors of kid-friendly platformers. The hero was applauded for being charming, more lovable than other mascots of its kind, and versatile, particularly with his limbs and his costume and weapon power-ups. Trenton Webb found the limb mechanic "quite fun to mess around with uselessly," and an Electronic Gaming Monthly critic called it "catchy" with "plenty of situations to test it." Superjuegos writer The Elf called his vehicle power-ups "fantastic and fun," and Hyper magazine Jason Humphreys claimed the cowboy power-up his favourite.

Some critics were addicted to Plok!'s gameplay and eulogized its playability, perfect control, and variety. Super Play's Jonathan Davies felt it kept adding new concepts as the game went on, and praised some of them, such as patterns of item placements directing the player to off-camera platforms and bouncing off water instead of drowning to death. Plok!'s difficulty was also highlighted, mostly attributed to lack of a password system, save feature, and requirement for continues to be earned. Other contributors to the challenge included long stage lengths and sudden obstacles such as rolling logs. One Total! journalist reported being confused what action to do next in some stages, and another from HobbyConsolas disclosed getting lost in levels and unable to look for targets and fleas required to complete levels. While some reviewers approved how hard Plok was, others disliked not being able to save or use passwords, reasoning it was annoying to replay earlier stages over and over again.

The cartoony graphics were praised as colorful, surreal, adorable, and featuring "vivid backgrounds"; one reviewer called them some of the best on the Super Nintendo, while another compared it to Equinox. FI appreciated the detail, such as Plok's breathing animation when standing still and the many "little coloured flowers everywhere, looking like real flower power stuff." The music was highlighted (by one critic as the game's best aspect) and noted for pushing the hardware limitations, and sound effects were praised.

Commercial performance and plans for a franchise
John Pickford and Kay had faith in Plok! being commercially successful. The Pickford brothers garnered IP ownership for the Plok character, common in other media economies but rare in the video games industry; and planned a franchise out of it, such as sequels, ports, and merchandise. A Mega Drive version was planned using a Software Creations worker's software for automatically converting SNES titles into Mega Drive games; 80% of the code was automatically converted, according to Ste, with the other 20% requiring hands-on work. Ultimately, however, despite Webb announcing the port's completion in an April 1994 interview, it was never released for unknown reasons.

Ste, using magic markers, created artwork for future sequels and merchandise, such as style guides of the characters and illustrations of scenes. The Pickfords planned sequels to involve Plok searching for the fleas' home, introduce a setting named Tower Island, and make Plok's comfy chair (which he sleeps on in the end credits of Plok!) a more crucial part of the gameplay. The Pickfords also drew concepts for toys used for pitches of the SNES game, such as a doll where limbs were joined and detached with velcro. During marketing, a Plok model was created in 3D Studio 4 for a promotional photo of Software Creations.

However, 1992, late in Plok!'s development, saw the beginning of a saturation of colorful platform games starring cute mascots, like Bubsy and Zool. Ste, in 2004, publicly stated developers and producers with more finances knew about previews of the Fleapit coin-op, which may have influenced them to produce games like it; there are no other reports verifying this. Although selling decently over a long period, none of the revenue went to the Pickfords, and Ste suggested the saturation hindered its commercial performance significantly; this plus Software Creations constantly changing publishers between projects rendered a Plok! franchise impossible for several years.

Legacy
In 2009, North American company Super Fighter Team released Zaku, a horizontal shooter for the Atari Lynx which features a special guest appearance by Plok.

The Pickfords later launched a Plok webcomic. From there, the webcomic takes place 20 years after the game as it features new characters and some returning ones like Rockyfella. The comic sometimes used pop-culture references from other games and other media, in-jokes reference and commentaries on the game's development and its future.

In later years, Plok was ranked the 26th all-time best SNES title (which also named it the best platformer produced in the United Kingdom) in 1996, the 19th best platform game by Gamereactor in 2014, and was listed in Edge editor Tony Mott's 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die in its 2013 edition. Video game elements introduced in Plok! were noted by retrospective journalists to be in more popular platformers released in later years. Games starring characters with floating body parts used as weapons, such as Dynamite Headdy (1994) and Rayman (1995), were released shortly afterwards and garnered much wider exposure. When listing Plok! on a list of "The Most Unappreciated Platformers Of The '90s" for Kotaku, Ben Bertoli wrote it was "influential for portraying a world, named Akrill[ic], based on craft supplies and cloth, a concept that Nintendo itself has come to rely on for many games. The game also provided players with power-ups and vehicles, such as flamethrowers and jetpacks, the likes of which had not been seen in a single game." Sepia-toned flashback stages also made up a chunk of Mickey Mania (1994).

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Plok!


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Bahloo

In Gamilaraay mythology, Bahloo is a male spirit representing the moon. The most known tale about him is a story about the origin of death.

Myths
Bahloo and the Daens

The most notable myth seeks to explain both man's mortality and the hatred between snakes and men, much as does the Judeo-Christian story of the Garden of Eden. In the tale, Bahloo takes his snakes (calling them his 'dogs') out for a walk at night. He comes upon a group of men and asks them to carry the snakes across a river for him. They were afraid, and refused, so he did it himself, with two snakes coiled around each arm and one around his neck. He threw a piece of bark on the water, which floated, and a stone, which sank. He declared that he was like the bark, always rising again, but that the men would be like the stone, and sink to the bottom when they were dead. The men, who had always feared the snakes, now hated them and killed them whenever they saw one. Bahloo always sent more, to remind the people that they had not done what he asked.

Bahloo and Wahn

One Aboriginal legend tells of how Bahloo was once a clever man who lived with Wahn, the Crow, and Buumayamayal, the fly catcher lizard, creating the babies of the world. One day, Wahn asks Bahloo, in addition to making new babies, that they resurrect the dead as well. Bahloo refused this request, making Wahn very upset. Upon seeing a large gum tree, Wahn asks to Bahloo climb the tree for grubs. He then breathed on the gum tree, causing it to grow into the sky. This is where Bahloo stayed, explaining why the Moon travels across the sky.

Bahloo and Yhi

During Bahloo’s travels, Yhi, the Sun, courts Bahloo, but he refused her advances. The myth says that this is why the Sun chased the Moon across the sky. Yhi threatened the spirits who held up the sky that if they let him escape down to Earth, she would plunge the world into darkness.

Nevertheless, Bahloo is sometimes seen walking on the Earth in Gamilaraay myth. He does so by disguising himself as the spirit emu, tricking the spirits and going back to Earth to once again reclaim his post of creating baby girls.

title: Bahloo


text:
Teinolophos

Teinolophos is a prehistoric species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal, from the Teinolophidae. It is known from four specimens, each consisting of a partial lower jawbone collected from the Wonthaggi Formation at Flat Rocks, Victoria, Australia. It lived during the late Barremian age of the Lower Cretaceous.

The species name honours the artist Peter Trusler. The genus name, Teinolophos, means "extended ridge", a reference to its tooth structure.

Originally, Teinolophos was thought to be a eupantothere. Further research revealed similarities to Steropodon, except in size: the animal was around 10 cm long. It is often listed as a steropodontid, though it may be more basal. Teinolophos is deeply divergent within monotreme evolution, so in 2022 it was proposed to move it into its own family, Teinolophidae. Stirtodon may be a close relative of Steropodon within Teinolophidae.

The holotype is a partial left dentary known as NMV P208231. An age of approximately 123 million years makes this the earliest known monotreme. The lower molar is broadly similar in morphology to the m2 of Steropodon. The trigonid is compressed and the talonid has no basin. The dentary is about one sixth the size of Steropodon, and wear facets indicate an "orthal" occlusion with the upper molars.

Jaw
The construction of the lower jaw differs from existing monotremes. Among the contrasts are the condyle, which is well above the tooth row (instead of at about the same height); and the ascending ramus, which is also higher. Also different is that Teinolophos probably had a strong bite. A unique feature for known toothed monotremes is that the trigonid is tall, while the talonid is set much lower. This is more like the general mammalian arrangement. The molar is double-rooted, which is plesiomorphic when compared to ornithorhynchids, but is a shared characteristic with Steropodon and Kollikodon. Subsequent monotreme molars are multi-rooted.

Unlike modern monotremes, Teinolophos lacked a beak.

Ears
Unlike modern monotremes, which have suspended ear bones much like placentals and marsupials, Teinolophos still had them connected to the jaw via the Meckel's cartilage. This reinforces the idea that the modern ear condition evolved independently among monotremes and therians.

Evolution
One study interpreted Teinolophos as a basal platypus.

title: Teinolophos


text:
Jack Kracken

Jack Kracken, born Emil Ecklund, was a Norwegian–American boxer of the 1930s. He was the first person to ever fight Joe Louis as a professional.

Biography
Emil Ecklund was born on August 13, 1899, in Lillehammer in Oppland county, Norway. Ecklund emigrated from Gudbrandsdal to the United States. Emil Ecklund climbed into the ring under his real name and as Jack Kracken in a journeyman's career that lasted 17 professional boxing matches between 1930 and 1934.

In 1930, Ecklund dropped three consecutive matches in Illinois. On April 1, in Springfield, Illinois, he was knocked out in round three by George Kutulis, lost a six-round decision to Fred Caldori on April 25 in Chicago and suffered a technical knockout at the hands of King Levinsky on August 29 in Chicago. The losing streak stretched to four when Ecklund was KO'd by Walter Pickard on March 30, 1931, in Louisville, Kentucky.

From November 30, 1931, to November 2, 1932, Ecklund toured four Washington cities and Vancouver, British Columbia for a pair of wins over Sam Eisman and a victory over Jack Yenter. On December 2, 1932, in Bremerton, Washington, Battling Mix knocked down Ecklund five times. On February 13, 1933, Ecklund defeated Chick McBride in rounds two and three at the Bremerton Athletic Club and subsequently in Silverdale, Washington, on February 23, 1933.

Jack Kracken is best remembered as the first boxer defeated by Joe Louis on July 4, 1934, in the first round of a scheduled six-round bout at Bacon Casino on Chicago's South Side. Kracken was one of Chicago's top heavyweights at the time he fought Louis. It was Kracken's last appearance in the ring. Jack Kracken finished his career with 10 wins (all by knockout) and 7 losses.

title: Jack Kracken


text:
Talk:Handshake

The British do handshake, quite a lot.
It's normal in Britain to handshake. I can only assume a non-Brit wrote that... Maybe handshaking isn't that common down south, but in the midlands, the north and Scotland you're expected to handshake quite often. Especially in formal situations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.237.144.70 (talk) 10:38, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Muslims refusing to shake hands
In the Netherlands, there was considerable debate after a (male) Muslim imam refused to shake hands with a female politician. There was also a school that tried to keep out a female Muslim because she refused to shake hands with men. Basis for those refusals was, I believe, that their interpretation of the Islamic faith considers it improper to physically touch people of the opposite sex. Does this deserve a mention here? --Raboof 14:20, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

 * To the best of my knowledge, in islam they don't shake hands with the other sex because it loses them their Wuduu'(a cleaning they have to do before prayer) but there was also something by their prophet that said "it'd be better for me to touch glowing iron than the skin of a woman".

Perhaps, but so do other customs or religions- correct me if I'm wrong but the Jewish doctrine of Shomon Negiah keeps some orthodox Jews from shaking hands with members of the opposite sex. It is partly a matter of interpretation and sometimes Muslims such as myself shake hands with members of the opposite sex knowing it may not be halal, but feeling the offense too minor for all intensive purposes. I'm not quite satisified with the mention made to shaking hands with members ofthe opposite sex- but I'm more concerned with the origins of handshaking. Angrynight 04:10, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes, you are right about the jewish doctrine. I rememeber seeing in CNN an interview with a jewish rapper who refused to shake hands with the lady who interviewed him because supposedly its not allowed. Regarding the history of handshaking, we were taught in our schools in yemen, that the yemeni's invented that. However, I have no sources to prove that. But someone else (not me) knew about this and posted it in the main article. Another user then deleted it and moved it here in the discussion page.

Jidan 05:26, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming this all has to do with something in a sexual nature. What about homosexuals? If they have taken up one of these religins, would they refuse to shake hands of the same sex?

-G

This is ridiculous - a mention like this has no place in the handshake article.

-A.H. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.237.123.212 (talk) 01:55, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

--- There is in fact a Hadith that proscribes handshaking between Muslims, though it escapes me at the moment. It seems the practice was eventually abandoned. Also, the whole refusal to shake hands due to Wuddu is not proscribed by tradition, it is a personal decision in order to avoid having to wuddu prior to every prayer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.217.208.10 (talk) 13:21, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Western European or Ancient Persian tradition?
Isn't the handshake gesture of Ancient Persian origen?

Persians were the only eastern civilization that used Handshaking as a form of greeting.

Yes

NO, it was generally a semitic tradition, but mostly yemenian. The persian greetings were similiar to the north indians and didnt involve handshaking. Jidan 10:04, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Nonsense, you are a arabic nationalist! --84.191.193.56 11:58, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

 * "History

The handshake is originally a Yemeni pre-islamic tradition, which spread with the expansion of the Islamic empire. The New Testament, in the Book of Galatians reflects the narration of St. Paul, that, upon his visit to Jerusalem he met with James, Cephas (Peter), and John, who each gave him, upon his leaving, the "right hand of friendship." See Galatians 2:9. Galatians has been dated by scholars as between 48 C.E. and 58 C.E. This suggests a usage well known in the Graeco-Roman world several centuries before the Islamic handshake.

It was brought into practice in its present form in Western society by English Quakers in 17th century as a more egalitarian and simpler alternative to the complex greeting etiquette of the contemporary higher social classes. Thomas Jefferson is often accredited with popularizing the technique during his tenure in the White House, displacing the bow as a more democratic greeting. Today the handshake is known and practiced throughout the world, though in many cultures alternative customs for greeting, such as bowing or cheek kissing are still preferred in some situations."

I can't wait any longer, remvoed from article. Please provide a source if you insist that this is true. --Kash 23:01, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Source for cattle section?
Can we get a source for the section on buyers slapping each others' faces? This seems very peculiar. --Impaciente 23:06, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

Quote: In Croatia, inserting a finger into another person's anus is considered equivalent to a handshake by a District Court's ruling of December 2005.

This paragraph is true. In one doubtfully court process the judgment is interpreted exactly like this. But if you come in Croatia do no dare to make greeting like this.

Update: Wrong! Although the court process (sexual offense) in question was a disgrace (as is the judge that made that ruling), the judgement stated that inserting finger in an anus of another person can not be considered as sexual contact no more than handshaking as there were no genitals involved in contact.

It is obvious that mentioned court process was very doubtfull, and created a lot of negative reactions in Croatia. It was very unconfortable to accept that such decision could be made in the court of law, and that such judge can even work in court. Anyway, it is crazy to believe that such a gesture could be a custome in Croatia. This information published in wikipedia is humiliating for all Croatians, and letting this information to stay undeleted was very irresponsible from the editors.

There's no such thing as "anal-handshaking" custom in Croatia. This is just the result of poor justice system in Croatia, where the judge can deliberately pardon rich tycoon and sexual offender from accusations of rape. There's even a joke among Croatians that says: "If you go to Gospić (place where it all happened), just don't handshake." - regarding ridiculous ruling of the judge.

Concerning "Croatian" handshake
It is obvious that mentioned court process was very doubtful, and created a lot of negative reactions in Croatia. It was very uncomfortable to accept that such decision could be made in the court of law, and that such judge can even work in court. Anyway, it is crazy to believe that such a gesture could be a custom in Croatia. This information published in wikipedia is humiliating for all Croatians, and letting this information to stay undeleted was very irresponsible from the editors.
 * If Croatians are concerned about their image - then the very problem shall be their judge and their court and not whether it is a custom or not. Here, nobody says it is a custom - rather it is an immoral comparison of a sexual assault to the handshake.--Purger 17:45, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

The ruling is not doubtful - it is final decision, there were no plans of a appeal to it. It was published in Croatian newspapers, and I believe it should bi placed under Trivia, not customs. I also found one site in English confirming it, and added it as a source. [freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1545248/posts]

Actually, the decision is not final. The ruling has recently been abolished by the decision of the Supreme Court of Croatia. And that's all there is about Croatian handshaking.

 * As difference to anglo saxon customs, in country mentioned, decision of court is not a president for future rulings, nor it has a legal value as such. And also, the decision in this legal case is not final, case is not closed because appeals have been made to the ruling and upper level court haven't rouled yet. So for time being it shouldn' have stayed not even under trivia for the time being.

I think that that should be removed from the handshake article or at least explained why someone used an sarcastic remark to the word hand shake! the editors should leave a link to explaining what that "handshake" is really and not lead people on to a lie. because officially it is a lie. and we all know here that is was a sexual assault which happened not a hand shake. Minnie

 * The freerepublic cite listed above is hardly reliable. Cite a more reliable source. Repeated entries regarding this Croatian handshake should be considered vandalism.--Sgstarling 20:54, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

 * It's obvious who's idea was it to write down such a stupidity,but there should be someone with more brain than  the author in Wikipedia to stop this edit option.....and delete this part from the article,because it's really offending for the nation .From now on, all the facts found in Wikipedia

have lost credibility for me.If any sick and ignorant person can change every article, what's the point of Wikipedia???? Proud to be Croat
 * Actually in the colloquial Croatian there is a notion called "Lika handshake". More about it read here. Joso Mraović, a founding member of the Croatian ruling party, HDZ, sexually abused an American female basketball player by pushing his fingers in her anus. A Croatian judge ruled this sexual attack as an act equivalent to handshake. That court rule was overturned and Joso was sentenced to three years in jail. Served only 20 months. Since Joso was inhabitant of the Croatian province called Lika, people named that act of the sexual abuse as Lika hanshake. Joso Mraović died of corona virus.--109.93.216.100 (talk) 12:50, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

Handshaking as a defense method?
If I recall correctly, handshaking was commonly used in the middle ages to see if the person entering the court (at feasts and celebrations) had a concealed weapon such as a dagger, in his palm. Maybe this'd be worth noting in the article? Stealth 11:13, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe this evolved from a Roman custom of grasping the other person's forearm, up near the elbow; both people could then determine if the other had a dagger strapped to their arm (the only feasible place to carry an accessable dagger when wearing a flowing toga). 04:18 p.m., 22 February 2006

Edit, rv, edit, rv...
The edits on this article may be the most bizarre thing I have seen on Wikipedia. Weregerbil 20:19, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

 * It is all about just one sentence

 * In Croatia, inserting a finger into another person's anus is considered equivalent to a handshake by a District Court's ruling of December 2005.

 * I see that some people do not like it to see under the article Customs or Trivia paragraphs - even though the statement is quite correct. Those who think that it is shameful to have this statement visible in this article - they shall direct their disgust toward that judge and the court which made this immoral comparison and made the criminal to be acquitted that way. Playing role of a censor here and this way, apparently, will not make this statement invisible - it is still here on the discussion page and in many previous revisions of the article.--Purger 13:35, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually it is not quite correct. The sentence is saying that practicaly everyone in Croatia considers inserting a finger into someone's anus as equivalent to handshake. Whoever's formulation of the sentence, it is misleading, and incorrect. Especially, because it is under Customs. After all, I live in Croatia, and I don't know ANYONE who will say it's a custom 'ere in these parts. :)

I mean, this is clearly intentional insult, because it's written as a court's expression of widespread opinion. Hey, c'mon, it doesnt say why, and what is the case in question. Why was this subject od media attention? Why is this subject of great controversy in Croatia? Who is the judge whose this is PERSONAL OPINION? Clearly, this is not a passage which is to be in this place at all. If anything, it should be under trivia, but definetly not in current form.

Mr Purger :) if you are from Croatia, or anywhere near, then you know that this sentence is intentionally insulting, especially because it doesnt say the name of the judge (Branko Milanović), or the criminal (Joso Mraović) whose finger was, in fact, in question (or, rather, somewhere else) Sasa T. Mataic

funny but inaccurate
How does this sentence: “Inserting finger in an anus of another person can not be considered as sexual contact no more than handshaking as there were no genitals involved in contact” Become this: “Inserting a finger into another person's anus is considered equivalent to a handshake”.

It is obviously a case of false logic, intentional hyperbole and fanciful extrapolation. Specifying a handshake, in a negative comparison, to illustrate the lack of sexual contact in some other activity, was obviously unfortunate choice but hardly institutes those acts as “equivalent” in any sense of the word. There is nothing true or correct in the statement “inserting a finger into another person's anus is considered equivalent to a handshake”. It is funny but not true.
 * I would bet that this defense of the judge's good nature, naivety and innocence belongs to some of the Balkan brotherhood of politically correct people--Purger 01:45, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
 * you must be on some really good stuff to have found any defence of the judge or any opinion about the case or about the ruling in the previous paragraph. The paragraph simply tries to expose the false logic that leads the extrapolation from the original statement of the ruling to the fanciful statement about Croatian customs. I have no agenda in this case, how about you? Or are those leprechauns meddling with your good stuff?
 * Here is http://www.novilist.hr/default.asp?WCI=Pretrazivac&WCU=285A286328592863285A28582858285D2863286328632859285F28592861285C286128632863286328582863D
 * a full story under the title "Sudac na silovanje gleda kao na rukovanje" i.e. "Judge sees rape equal to handshake" (free translation) as published in the Novi List newspaper.

It is also true that inserting a finger into someone anus is not a sexual act in itself. It could be made sexual by circumstances, but on its own it is no more sexual then sticking a finger into someone’s ear. If uninvited or without a consent it is an assault but not necessarily sexual. It is also true that any bodily contact can be made sexual through circumstances, even a handshake.
 * The cirumstances are well-known and quite clear. Even the USA ambassador in Croatia was prompted to warn Croatian officials not to play primitive judicial tricks in this case.--Purger 01:45, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
 * where do you get stuff you are on? I want some, it must be a blast!

If Wikipedia wants to become notorious as “humour central” for funny but essentially inaccurate statements then the statement should stay. Otherwise if accuracy is important to Wikipeadia, maybe it would be more appropriate to move the statement to trivia, with the explanation and the reference to the source of information.

 * it is a shame that the statement was completely removed in the later versions of the article. The original wording of the ruling is bizarre enough to warrant a mention in the trivia section. It does not need any silly embellishment. It stands tall (or deep as the case may be) in the glory of its own stupidity.

For toilet humor like this, drop it onto uncynclopedia.org or something, or better yet, just drop it. I don't think Wikipedia is supposed to keep trivia (and especially corrupt judicial system cases) like this. Stealth 09:58, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

This "Croatian handshake" deserves mentioning. It is something that really happened in court system of Croatia. That ruling is still in power. Until being revoked by Croatian court it deserves to be mentioned.

'''What I think, and what all of you forget to mention in here is well known in Croatia and EU and that is corruption and corrupted judges. Judges ruling in this case was clearly, an corrupted judge.'''

I have to disagree with the aformentioned statement that the judgement still is in power, that it has its legal power for the time being, whilst first instance court's judgements in Croatia do NOT have legal power whatsoever until the superior court confirms it (in this case the Supreme Court of Croatia), or if the appeal had not been made until the time prescribed by Croatian Criminal Procedure Act passes, or in the third case if the defendant himself and prosecuting attorney expressly waive their right to appeal. Therefore I must say that the statment in the article saying: "Inserting a finger into another person's anus is considered equivalent to a handshake" does not have any influnce or meaning from the legal point of view.

Secondly, merely by plucking out this disgracefoul sentence out of one single judgement and interpreting it in the way that this is Croatian custom is rather offensive to me personaly and to Croatian nation as a whole. Unfortunately, every judical system has its eccentric individuals as this judge for instance, but it does not give the right to any person to make the statment saying it is customary in Croatia. Pmatic 83.131.6.97 12:21, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Contractual Handshake
I think it would be worth including the Contractual Handshake.

I understand that a handshake is a legitimate and binding acknowledgment and acceptance of the terms of a (particlarly verbal) contract.

 * A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's not written on.

Who Initiates a Handshake?
In reference to the sentence about it being impolite to refuse to shake hands, this comes to mind: Handshake is always offered by someone senior, in higher position, or a woman. Too many US movies show this incorrectly, and it seems it is lost on many... One does not offer to shake hands with the Queen, only she can. Wikiak 02:34, 29 August 2007 (UTC) 02:33, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Those are corner cases. The person who extends their hand first (if one person is first) is the initiator, otherwise it is mutually initiated, the more common case. A more real/relevant issue is what about refusal/alternatives to hand shaking. I've seen people and I think with good cause refuse the custom, and perhaps some mention of the fact that both hands need to be bare or gloved and in general a gloved handshake is considered a compromised one, you're supposed to take them off so it's skin-skin. 72.228.190.243 (talk) 22:15, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

in anglophone countries?
what? in Western countries! --AnY FOUR! 16:03, 9 September 2007 (UTC) Hi Aj —Preceding unsigned comment added by Swiftee18 (talk • contribs) 14:27, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I came on here to comment on that, since I can't think of any Westrern country where the handshake is not the standard greeting. So I think it should be changed. Drogo (talk) 14:48, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Mesopotamian handshake predates the Greek handshake
Look it up it, the relief is called the Assyrian. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gaetuli nomad (talk • contribs) 00:53, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
 * New sections go at the bottom, and burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim, not everyone else. Ian.thomson (talk) 01:23, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Hand-kissing is not the preferred way to greet a woman in Russia
While the passage is correct on the fact that a handshake is rarely performed by opposite sexes and men shaking hands with women can be considered impolite, hand-kissing is not preferred for greeting a lady in almost any situation in Russia. I believe the habit has fallen out of use since the early decades of the 20th century. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.234.37.98 (talk) 08:46, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Also, Russian men shake hands quite a lot -- not only when they greet each other, but also sometimes when they say goodbye. 85.234.37.98 (talk) 09:03, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

 * Do you think women in Russia care? 101.178.163.208 (talk) 07:02, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

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Nomination of Donald Trump's handshakes for deletion
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Other
Similar problems exist in Germany. Xx236 (talk) 07:15, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 09:51, 20 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Covid-19-Handshake-Alternatives-v3.gif

religious view
This article lacks a a part on religious view. --Doostdar (talk) 05:44, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

"Comfort shake" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Comfort shake and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 May 8 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 01:47, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Vandalism?
"Using the Left hand is generally considered proper etiquette". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 43.225.61.210 (talk) 02:50, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Handshake