# My hero: Man silences cell phones on Philadelphia bus **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 5, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773 "2012-03-05T02:27:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/61 "2012-03-05T22:13:47Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I wish there were cell free zones. Libraries, theaters, bookstores should jam cell phones. Make people step outside for their phone calls. > > But the FCC doesn’t see it that way. Instead we get a-holes talking in the middle of movies. Ruining the movie I paid to see. The FCC just says you can’t block cell phone signals, it says nothing about requiring people to leave the theater, library, or bookstore to talk on the phone, or require people to put their phones on vibrate. Plenty of good movie theaters will kick you out for talking on the phone, you just have to find the right one. You’re complaining about the wrong people. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/62 "2012-03-05T22:20:53Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > What I don’t understand is why a conversation between two people on a bus is OK, but if you only hear one side of the conversation, that’s annoying? What if two people carry on a conversation with each other, seated side by side, using cellphones? I think it’s a combination of two different things. 1. You can zone out when it’s quiet and you can zone out with a constant noise as you convert it to white noise. But it’s much more difficult to ignore the constant start and stop of noise that you’ll get when you’re hearing a one-sided conversation. 2. People, on average, speak louder when using a cell phone than they would were the person right next to them. So the volume is more and it’s more difficult to ignore. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/63 "2012-03-05T22:26:32Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I gotta take issue with comments of this sort. It’s just like “hey, back when I was a kid we never wore seat belts and none of us died”. Obviously none of you died, because you’re here posting now. Heck, back before penicillin plenty of us survived infections, back before telephones people still found ways to communicate, back before cars people were able to survive, etc, etc, etc. > > Before cell phones, there were all sorts of other things built into various systems to help deal with emergencies… I’m sure there were elaborate systems where surgeons would call into hospitals from pay phones letting the staff know where they were and how to reach, etc. And I’m sure those systems worked a lot better than nothing. But with cell phones they can (at least in theory) work _better_. So (a) the system is better than it used to be, and (b) now that we have cell phones, the previous systems are likely no longer being used, so if you suddenly turn off cell phones we might not just revert to pre-cell-phone levels of emergency response, we might get much worse because we are now depending on cell phones. Remember babysitting when you had to have the number of the restaurant the parents would be at? And sometimes you had to CALL it and ask for “Mr. and Mrs. Zebrowski” and they had to go find them? That SUCKED. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/64 "2012-03-05T22:31:16Z")
Based on the articles description cell phone jammers are still bulky and easy to spot. The triple antennas is a easy give away. I can imagine a severe butt kicking for people caught using them. Sadly, I think new cars will eventually have jammers in them. That’s the only way to stop people from causing accidents while talking or texting. Laws are being passed but cops can’t watch every car that’s on the road. The only solution is to disable cell phones inside the car. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/65 "2012-03-05T22:55:23Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Sadly, I think new cars will eventually have jammers in them. That’s the only way to stop people from causing accidents while talking or texting. Laws are being passed but cops can’t watch every car that’s on the road. The only solution is to disable cell phones inside the car. If there is an accident, then it is easy to request the cell phone records to see if the driver was using their phone when the accident occurred. In any case self driving cars will be available in a decade or so and make the point moot. I would also like to point out that fatalities per passenger mile have actuality gone down every year, so this doesn’t seem like an urgent need. If you wanted to add equipment to make cars safer, it would make more sense to have breathalyzers as standard equipment. There is a pretty strong correlation between DUIs and traffic fatalities. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/66 "2012-03-05T23:00:16Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Sadly, I think new cars will eventually have jammers in them. That’s the only way to stop people from causing accidents while talking or texting. Laws are being passed but cops can’t watch every car that’s on the road. The only solution is to disable cell phones inside the car. Just like they’ve put governors in cars so they can’t exceed the speed limit? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/67 "2012-03-05T23:04:11Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Just like they’ve put governors in cars so they can’t exceed the speed limit? Not Governor _Corzine_, I hope. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/68 "2012-03-05T23:19:59Z")
Question for the people who are applauding this jerk: do you own cell phones yourselves? Because I doubt your conversations are any more interesting than the ones this guy took it upon himself to disrupt. Yes, a lot of the cell phone conversations you’re forced to listen to are annoying and some people are just too freaking loud. Your desire not to have to listen to those calls does not come first. I say that as somebody who’s pretty quick to get annoyed by this kind of thing. As far as putting cell phone jammers in movie theaters or other places… it’s probably not going to happen. What’s more important: your movie, or the off chance that someone actually gets an important call? ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/69 "2012-03-05T23:35:56Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > NO, ffs. Why should I have to use earplugs?? All pollution should be stopped at its source, and that includes noise pollution. So next time someone annoys you, try asking them to shut up; you know, like an adult? I’m sure they’ll be happy to accomodate you. :dubious: And if they aren’t, well…guess what. Welcome to the world of living with other people. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/70 "2012-03-06T00:14:35Z")
I’d definitely do it. I don’t believe that the occasional emergency happens often enough to warrant this barrage of constant noise we’re subjected to. We’ve let it become the new normal when just a few years ago, before cell phones were ubiquitous, we had to wait until we were home to answer this. People can shut up for the few minutes or hours it takes to ride the bus. Besides, unless these guys are House, you’re not going to be solving medical mysteries over the course of a bus ride. Whatever is happening is not going to be solved by you because you can’t be there to do the surgery, nor can you get there faster because otherwise you wouldn’t be on the bus. It only makes people think they are in control, to be appraised of the situation, when they could not do anything about it anyway. I would be very surprised if people get these types of emergency calls that could not be put off for an hour. I can imagine situations of it, but I seriously doubt they happen to any sort of significant degree ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/71 "2012-03-06T00:15:09Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Apparently the guy figured out that what he is doing is illegal. > > [http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Philadelphia-Cell-Phone-Jammer-Septa-bus-jammer-signal-blocker-mobile,news-14341.html](http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Philadelphia-Cell-Phone-Jammer-Septa-bus-jammer-signal-blocker-mobile,news-14341.html) > > > [@](#): > > > > According to NBC10, shortly after they confronted Eric, he called them to say he had confirmed that his use of the cell phone jammer was illegal and would be disposing of the device. Can he dispose of it in mailbox? Addressed to me? Because that would be swell. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/72 "2012-03-06T00:25:56Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I’d definitely do it. I don’t believe that the occasional emergency happens often enough to warrant this barrage of constant noise we’re subjected to. You honestly think people on the bus would be quiet if only they had no phones? > [@](#): > > People can shut up for the few minutes or hours it takes to ride the bus. My experience shows that no, they can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/73 "2012-03-06T01:11:33Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > We’ve let it become the new normal when just a few years ago, before cell phones were ubiquitous, we had to wait until we were home to answer this. And we’ve done it because, by and large, **we like it**. Being able to communicate while engaging in a passive activity like riding the bus is a convenience for many people. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/74 "2012-03-06T02:03:35Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Based on the articles description cell phone jammers are still bulky and easy to spot. The triple antennas is a easy give away. I can imagine a severe butt kicking for people caught using them. > > Sadly, I think new cars will eventually have jammers in them. That’s the only way to stop people from causing accidents while talking or texting. Laws are being passed but cops can’t watch every car that’s on the road. The only solution is to disable cell phones inside the car. There’s another really obvious solution, one that has worked with similar problems before: Make the fine for using them while driving extremely costly. Remember when littering out of cars was a huge problem? Back in the day highways were absolutely strewn with trash because the easier way to dispose of your Quarter Pounder meal was to throw it out a window. Like cell phone use, there just wasn’t any way for the cops to catch everyone - but to solve the problem, one of the things they did was impose huge fines. So you might not usually get caught but when you did it was a pretty staggering penalty. Drunk driving is the same thing. You can’t catch them all, or even most of them, but the really severe penalties have resulted in a significant drop in the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/75 "2012-03-06T02:15:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Question for the people who are applauding this jerk: do you own cell phones yourselves?\ I do have a cellphone, and sometimes I even talk on it in public - off to the side or in a corner somewhere, so I don’t annoy other people. Being aware of how you affect other people in the world is definitely becoming a lost art. > [@](#): > > As far as putting cell phone jammers in movie theaters or other places… it’s probably not going to happen. What’s more important: your movie, or the off chance that someone actually gets an important call? It’s more like, which is more important, 200 people watching a movie in peace, or one person getting an important call? Not to mention that all cellphones have a vibrate feature, so you can excuse yourself and go out of the theatre to take your important call. > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > And we’ve done it because, by and large, **we like it**. Being able to communicate while engaging in a passive activity like riding the bus is a convenience for many people. Your convenience trumps my pleasant bus ride/shopping experience/movie/library time? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/76 "2012-03-06T02:37:28Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > What I don’t understand is why a conversation between two people on a bus is OK, but if you only hear one side of the conversation, that’s annoying? What if two people carry on a conversation with each other, seated side by side, using cellphones? If you aren’t looking at them, it would sound exactly the same. I beg to differ. This isn’t about a couple of giggling nuns. It’s about people scream into their phones. haven’t you been reading the thread? The legality of what he’s doing is not in question. But nobody wants to listen to some jackass’s personal life. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/77 "2012-03-06T04:33:04Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > I think public transportation providers have a responsibility to act in this situation, too. I can’t imagine that the fare conditions allow passengers to commit federal crimes while in transit, so people who do this should be banned from riding. C’mon, this is f$#%ing SEPTA we’re talking about! I’m convinced you don’t pass their driver training unless you are proficient at striking pedestrians & bicyclists. I’ve personally been a victim of a hit-&-run from these a$$holes & on other occasions almost been struck will standing on the sidewalk because the driver jumped the light & took the turn too tight. I’ve also witnessed drivers \*intentionally \*run red lights on multiple occasions. When they stop breaking state laws, then _maybe_ they can worry about enforcing federal ones. > [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I read the news and my email on my smartphone while riding the bus. That doesn’t bother ANYBODY, but would still be stopped by the jammer. Break his thumbs and throw him in the gutter. The way I understood it, he’d turn it on, the obnoxious party’s call would be dropped & then he’d turn it off, he wasn’t keeping it on. You might need to reload your page; I was under the impression that he wasn’t keeping it on long enough for someone to miss the entire ring cycle so emergency calls going to voicemail wouldn’t be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/78 "2012-03-06T04:47:20Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > … he wasn’t keeping it on long enough for someone to miss the entire ring cycle… I should hope not. That would be a long time to be on a city bus. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/79 "2012-03-06T05:18:41Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Your convenience trumps my pleasant bus ride/shopping experience/movie/library time? A bus ride is transportation from A to B, and any pleasure people get from it is a bonus. If you can only derive pleasure from it if people refrain from speaking, then you just get that much less pleasure in your life. If proprietors of movie theaters and other places where it’s _reasonable_ to expect silence from patrons (a city bus is not one of those places at all) don’t want people talking on the phone while watching movies, then they should eject phone users from the property instead of stealing from lawful users of the radio frequencies they’re jamming. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773/80 "2012-03-06T10:17:28Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The man was an ass. > > Smoke on a Septa bus and the other passengers will complain. The driver will eject you. > > Listen to music without headphones and the same will happen. > > There is no rule, written or unwritten, about using a cell phone while on the bus. In London it is permitted to use a cell phone on a bus, but it is prohibited to play music without headphones. Unfortunately some people seem to think that the former rule pre-empts the latter, and happily use their smart phones to blast music at full volume. When they do this on the upper floor of a double-decker bus it’s unlikely the driver is going to notice and eject them. At times like those I wished I had a cell phone jammer which would jam only the phones’ loudspeakers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-hero-man-silences-cell-phones-on-philadelphia-bus/614773.md?page=5)