04-18-2008, 08:00 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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More Angst On Cellphone Usage In Transit Systems
The world has never been more connected, but in some corners, it's developing a real hang-up over the ubiquitous cell phone. Taking a cue from France's national railway, which offers phone-free "zen zones" on high-speed trains, Austria's second-largest city this week began ordering public transit commuters to keep their phones on silent mode.
This is an entirely new problem that didn't seriously exist even just a few years ago. Not everyone had cellphones and those that did had relatively high charges for talk time, so you chose your calls carefully. Now, almost all adults have them and many teenagers and kids have them as well. Per minute rates are very low and some plans have more minutes in them than even the most chatty person could use in a month.
This is just one of those things where a new social etiquette will have to surface that allows people to freely speak, but also allows others to freely not hear them. I think for trains, the answer is simple. If you want to talk on the train, just ride on top.
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04-18-2008, 03:06 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 190
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I think a certain amount of common sense and common courtesy would be nice as well.
I mean, you wouldn't walk into a restaurant and see a couple on a date at a table with three chairs and just plop down and start talking loudly enough that they couldn't hold a private discussion, yet that is essentially what people do with cell phones.
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04-18-2008, 03:20 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I always find these anti-cellphone in public rants funny. The problem isn't the cellphone, yet many here that otherwise embrace technology are quick to accept, or even push for a ban of that technology. The problem is the moron using it doesn't realize there isn't a need to shout into it.
Should we ban all conversation on public transportation? In theory there should be no difference between me having a conversation with someone in person or over the phone. What is the difference, and why should we ban one and not the other? I propose a radical solution, if someone is talking really loud on his cellphone, how about politely asking him to turn down the volume because your trying to read/converse/listen to music, etc.
I rarely talk on my cellphone in public, but the times I do it's because of an important issue that needs to be addressed at that point in time --THAT's why I have a cell phone, so I can deal with issue when they come up, not 2 hours later when I'm done with my commute. If you continue to push for bans on these in public places, then it's one more tool that has been eliminated by those that can't seem to realize that change is inevitable.
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04-18-2008, 04:08 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 41
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well the bigger problem is that often times there are small groups of teenagers on the train/bus/subway that listen to (awful) music with their phones - on loudspeaker.
this new law addresses this too.
I am not disturbed by people talking on the phone. I am disturbed by the young crown listening to turk pop or some disco crap.
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04-18-2008, 07:11 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 190
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whydidnt
The problem is the moron using it .
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See, we agree! 
I don't think legislation is the answer either - it is no different to me than people who go to restaurants with their kids and have a nice time while letting their kids run amuck. I'm sorry, I had two kids under two at one time, I know parenting is hard ... but that doesn't make it my problem!
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04-19-2008, 12:49 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whydidnt
Should we ban all conversation on public transportation? In theory there should be no difference between me having a conversation with someone in person or over the phone. What is the difference, and why should we ban one and not the other?
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Because everyone talks louder into their cell phone than they do to the person next to them. Being able to watch someone's facial expressions, gestures and lips enables you to talk lower. Plus your ears filter out background noise more effeectively than a cellphone mic does, so to counter that, you talk louder.
It isn't the same thing at all.
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04-19-2008, 10:26 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 455
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I don't talk louder on a cellphone. All it takes is for someone to teach others how to do it right.
I also think this stuff is out of hand. On one hand, I can go to a bar where I can't hear myself think over the conversations of others, also pitched artificially loud to people sitting right next to them. Then, get on a bus or train that is loud enough to prompt some people to wear earphones just to shut out the racket. Yet no one is demanding that bars all have to be "zen-like quiet," nor are they rushing to add sound-proofed walls to my train.
I think it's more than just loudly-pitched voices that cheeses people off. Subconsciously, people tend to focus on a one-sided conversation... when they hear it, their minds want to know the other half of the conversation, and direct their attention that way. (I suspect it's partially an instinctual thing, though I'm not sure exactly how it might have aided humans' survival skills on the savannah.) And it's the lack of ability to "tune out" the conversation that leads to anger and frustration.
Over the last few years, I've become better at "tuning out" these conversations. But I'm also getting better at being able to unashamedly tell someone, "Dude: You don't have to shout."
__________________
Steven Lyle Jordan: Original SF so good, Fox would never put in on the air. |
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04-20-2008, 08:25 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 4
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Commuter comments
Here in CT there is tacit agreement to keep mobile phone conversations to a minimum on trains. People are quick to tell a loud mobile phone conversationalist to keep it down.
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04-23-2008, 02:11 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 952
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We're going for the exact opposite here in Boston, MA. The MBTA in all its wisdom has rolled out a pilot program that allows cellphone coverage in our deepest T stations, (Park Street & Downtown Crossing). The last refuge from the Turk Pop (?) playing, Chirp, Chirp, Chirping, check out my new ringtone generation is soon to be extinct. But then again they rolled out a T-Radio pilot program (god it was awful) in several underground stations and that got booed out of existence in less than two months. The real problem around here is on the surface line buses though. The language the kids use and the topics the adults talk about make me think I'm on a rolling version of the Jerry Springer Show sometimes.
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04-24-2008, 05:14 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Wonder what would happen if you just asked the 'moron', "Excuse me, could you repeat that, I missed it over the construction noise." "What? Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you intended everyone else to listen, you were certainly talking loud enough everyone on the bus could hear you."
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