The New York Bus service express buses (from Manhattan to the Bronx) have signs posted in them that read: “As a courteosy to other customers, please refrain from using cellular telephones while on this bus.”
WHY? How is a cell phone conversation worse than talking the person next to you? Does anyone understand this? I don’t even have a cell phone and I find this annoying.
Oh, and BTW, I didn’t want to open a whole separate thread but, in 1.5 weeks, I graduate (finally) from my MD/PhD program to become a fully-fledged peon (read: intern).
I think people tend to talk louder on a cell phone than in a face-to-face conversation, but I’ve heard some pretty loud and obnoxious conversations on the bus, so, unless there is a good reason I’m missing, it just seems like silly anti-cell-phone backlash to me.
There are plenty of places where it’s inappropriate to yak on your cell phone. Let’s focus on those, can we?
In my experience, people using cell phones on the city buses here seem to speak even louder than they do while using cell phones on the street, probably because the bus engines make so much noise and they have to speak over that noise.
Of course, that doesn’t explain why they’d ban it on the express bus only. Is the express bus operated by a separate company?
Hm, maybe I’m just talking out of my butt and should shut up now.
It’s because we can only hear one side of the conversation and it drives us crazy. If you were talking to your seat-mate, we’d get to hear everything. Plus you talk too loud on the phone.
I don’t like cell phones due to an unfortunate experience about a decade ago, but I don’t get this rule either. I ride the bus to work most days and have no problem with people talking on cell phones. Actually, some days I think it might be rather nice to be able to call home and say “I’ve just passed [local landmark]. Do you want to meet me at the bus stop?”
The only even remotely reasonable reason I can think of is that it might interfere somehow with the bus driver’s radio, but I wouldn’t see that as being very likely. Beyond that, um… maybe they got a large number of complaints? Perhaps it will have to be a great mystery of the universe (at least until someone who knows what they’re talking about comes in here).
They make these rules on trains and buses here in Japan too. They used to try to play it up as a possible danger to passengers with pacemakers. Supposedly when your signal comes in it can screw with the mechanisms of the pacemaker of anyone sitting too close. Anyone who has received a cell phone call while their phone was set on top of an amplifier could see how this might be possible.
But I think it’s just a story they use to get people to stop talking so goddamn loud on the bus/train. I often wonder myself what’s so annoying about it. I find it annoying when people have long cell phone conversations on the train, and I avoid doing it myself, but everytime I start to get pissed off at one of these people I catch myself and ask what are they really doing that’s so different from just talking to the guy next to them?
One of the great mysteries. Someone else said it as a joke, but I think the fact that you only get to hear one side of the conversation might actually have a lot to do with it. The rhythm is all wrong, and it upsets your system in some primal way.
“This could turn into a public-relations nightmare. You know, we’re New Yorkers. We’ve got big mouths, and we will punch each other.” City Councilman Philip Reed, who has proposed a bill to ban cell-phone conversation on all public transportation in the city, said that wiring subways for cell phones would provoke a “revolution” of angry riders.
The bus service is asking people to refrain from using their cell phones while riding the bus as opposed to the outright ban that you find in doctor’s offices and hospitals.
They are just asking people to practice common courtesy. If you ever ride the bus here when school lets out you often find that most of the students spend their travel time yakking it up with their friends. When you have 10 or 20 kids using their cell phones they all have to compete with each other and the already high noise level on the bus to be heard so it can get pretty damn loud. Imagine the guy like me who has just finished a long day at work and would like to travel home in as much peace and quiet as possible… I can see why other people get really pissed off. One of out major service providers even offers free usage between 3 and 5 so the talk time isn’t even a hit on people’s pocketbooks.
Although I carry my phone whenever I leave the house and the fact it never gets turned off I may have the lowest cell phone usage of anyone I know. I am the guy who sometimes doesn’t even recognize the ringing phone to be his and when it does ring I know that the call is going to be fairly important.
This one’s easy: because it’s really irritating. I hate when people have loud phone conversations in confined spaces with me. It’s completely different than having a conversation with another person, in my opinion. I don’t exactly know why – I think it’s because people on the phone tend to try to talk over the background noise instead of with it.
When I talk on my cell phone in, say, the airport, I usually try to find a corner away from people, so as to not subject them to my conversation.
Maybe the volume of the conversations and the ringing of the phones is distracting to the driver? In a plane or a train the pilot/driver is separated from the passengers, but in a bus the driver is right there.
I was on a street car (bus, street car, barely any difference) and a woman was having a loud, gossip filled conversation that drove everyone nuts until someone got up, walked over to her and told her to shut up. When you talk to someone next to you, it tends to be in a polite murmur that only needs to bridge the distance between your mouth and his/her relatively close ear.
Gabbing on a cell when there’s a lot of background noise usually leads to near-bellowing.
Like Feynn, I must carry a cell no matter where I go due to work (gotta be accessible for multiple times zones), but my actual cell phone use is incredibly low. The ringer is always set to vibrate, and I always excuse myself or take the number so I can call back from a land-line or from a suitable quiet place where I’m not likely to annoy.
I use mine when I take the bus-my mother likes to know I got on the bus-because in Pittsburgh, bus schedules and such are notorious for being mixed up.