The MT Position

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit magazine editor

Despite significant improvements in technology, transit isn’t quiet. Sure, electrically powered vehicles don’t have the metallic rumble of engines past, but they are still far from quiet. And that’s just on the outside. What’s worse is the noise inside.

At the dinner table at night my wife and I have begun asking for a moment of silence before we eat. This isn’t necessarily out of respect for anyone in particular, but to get our kids to appreciate how nice quiet can be. Anyone who travels as much as I do can commiserate with this.

Frankly, traveling is noisy. The bustle of people and the large machines that move them creates a din that you usually don’t realize is there until it’s gone. No wonder so many people ride transit with headphones in — at least the noise is of my own choosing.

This week I read an article about a fight coming to a head in Congress over cell phone use on airplanes. It’s a battle between travelers’ rights groups who want the United States to follow Europe’s lead in allowing cell phone usage on flights and the FAA who sees them as a potential hazard to use in the air.

As any Mythbuster’s fan can tell you, they already tested the veracity of the FAA’s concern and:

“The ban on cell phones on aircraft is designed to force passengers to use the expensive in-flight phones.

Busted.

It was found that cell phone signals, specifically those in the 800-900 MHz range, did interfere with unshielded cockpit instrumentation. Because older aircraft with unshielded wiring can be affected, and because of the possible problems that may arise by having many airborne cell phones “seeing” multiple cell phone towers, the FCC (via enforcement through the FAA) still deems it best to err on the safe side and prohibit the use of cell phones while airborne.” (http://mythbustersresults.com/episode49)

So the FAA has a point. But really, that shouldn’t matter. The fact is that people on cell phones can be loud, rude and give freely with information no one around them wants to hear.

My point is that while the government is fighting to keep this ban in place, they should be fighting to extend it to all forms of transit. If I don’t want to listen to the guy next to me on a plane talk on his cell phone, why would I on the bus or train? Sure, there are quiet cars on most rail lines, but the quiet ones shouldn’t be herded into a special car, it should be the loud ones.

If this does happen, let’s hope at least they will free up other portable electronics so I can turn up my iPod when the guy next to me is talking to his doctor about his latest check-up.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday. For those interested in instant updates, you can now get your latest Mass Transit news fix via Twitter.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
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This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 7:54 am and is filed under MT Position. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.