Graz bans mobile phone noise from public transport

[pne]

I just read that mobile phones will only be allowed on busses and trams in Graz if they are in silent mode—so no ringtones, no SMS notification noise, no game noises etc. Also no phone conversations. (You don't have to switch it off completely, it just has to be silent.)

At the end of the article, it said that the local public transport company "fears that many customers may, in the future, decide to abstain from using busses and trains because they essentially cannot telephone any more".

Is this really something so dastardly, not to use your mobile phone while you're on your train? People put up with not being able to do other things (such as smoke) while using public transport—is this in a different league?

Comments

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Trains here have "silent" cars, where you can't use anything that makes noise and can only have a conversation if you do it quietly. Personally I'd allow the use of cell phones if the caller followed the same guidelines as for in-person conversation. (And no ring tones. Heck, I don't even know what my phone sounds like, since I never turn the ringer on.)

And TBH, as someone who took the train to work, being forbidden from calling my job and saying "I'm going to be late, there's a problem with the train" might well be a dealbreaker.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Trains here have "silent" cars, where you can't use anything that makes noise and can only have a conversation if you do it quietly.

This sounds like a good idea; I've often enough been annoyed by people holding conversations around me that made it nearly impossible for me to concentrate on the book I was trying to read.

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

It's called vibrate mode and text message.

[psitticism.livejournal.com]

I used to commute to work in New York from Montclair, NJ (interestingly, Montclair is a sister city to Graz). Cell phone use was prohibited on the buses there. No silent mode, no text messages, nothing. And the drivers were not afraid to be nasty when it came to enforcing it.

It was fine with me, for the most part. The only issue I had was when I had someone meeting me on the other end, and I needed to let them know I was arriving. Since the buses were often quite late, this was extremely annoying.

Now I live in the next town over and I can blabber on as much as I like.

[tungol.livejournal.com]

What's the point of banning text messages, have you any idea?
I can see both sides of the issue of whether cell phone conversations should be banned, but I don't see how text messaging is a disturbance, as long as it wasn't ringing and making noises.

[pne.livejournal.com]

My guess would be that "no cell phone use, period" is easier to understand (and enforce) than "some cell phone use is acceptable, as long as it doesn't make noise", which can lead to situations such as "please switch off your phone, the SMS notification noise is not allowed" - "But he's sending and receiving text messages and you're not saying anything to HIM!"

[ubykhlives.livejournal.com]

Is this really something so dastardly, not to use your mobile phone while you're on your train?

Not dastardly enough to stop people using the buses and trains, I wouldn't think.

Nonetheless, I do have to say that I dislike the idea intensely. Buses and trains are public places; why should different rules apply to those public places as opposed to, say, in a municipal park? I guess it boils down to the idea that I don't think any conversation held at a reasonable volume should be classifiable as noise pollution. How is having a telephone conversation on a train or bus any different to two passengers having one? Isn't that an awfully arbitrary line to draw?

And psitticism also made a good point: what if you have someone meeting you at the other end? I don't have a driver's licence, and I travel virtually everywhere on public transport. Journeys may take between half an hour and an hour and a half depending on where I'm going, and if unforeseen circumstances come up it's handy to call and let someone know that the train's running late, or had to make an emergency stop, or you had to transfer to a bus instead and hence will be able to walk home from the bus stop rather than needing to be picked up from the train station. (I've done all of these things myself.) Such things are one of the things mobile phones were invented for, and you can't just jump off a train or bus and use a payphone without seriously disrupting your trip.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I don't think any conversation held at a reasonable volume should be classifiable as noise pollution.

I wonder whether they took this step because they decided that too many people hold cell phone conversations at unresonable volume that trusting to people using common sense/courtesy was hopeless, and a complete ban is easier to enforce than one on conversations louder than x number of decibels/Sone/what-have-you.

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

Anyone who works with the great unwashed (i.e. the general public) will tell you that common sense is surprisingly uncommon. People on the whole simply cannot be trusted to apply common sense to any given scenario unless specifically told to do so, in which event they will claim they have been doing. If people had common sense, they wouldn't be constantly getting run over by busses due to not looking before stepping into the road, wouldn't have RTAs due to driving 3 inches from the rear of the car in front, wouldn't pull doors marked push, wouldn't attempt to open doors that have a "closed" sign on just to see if the sign has been put there for a reason, wouldn't say "are these 3 for 2" on items with stickers on saying "3 for 2", etc etc!:p

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

> Buses and trains are public places

Are they, though? Surely, they are private places by some definition, as people can't just enter/exit whenever they please - they have to pay a fair and agree to abide by the conditions of carriage, which are drawn up by the owning company. If it was a public place, the company wouldn't have any authority to draw up and enforce their rules.

You are paying for a service, and that service has conditions of use - if you don't like those conditions of use, then you are quite welcome to find an alternative. For example in a shop - people are free to walk in and out, but that doesn't make it a public place - it's a private place and has rules (e.g. do not touch the merchandise. If you want to touch the merchandise, then you go to a shop that allows this). Rules can only be imposed on a private location that you own!:)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

What about when the "owning company" is a public entity, such as a municipality? It's hard to tell from the article, but that appears to be the case in this instance.

[nyssa.livejournal.com]

Personally, I would think twice about using public transportation if I was forbidden from using my phone. I'm one of those types who shouldn't even really be paying $50/month for phone service because I use my phone SO rarely it's not worth it.

But when I DO use my phone, it's for something essential. Like, "I'm running late, can you meet me an hour later than you said you would?" or "They're singletracking trains, so it's going to take me an hour to get home instead of 20 minutes" or "I just had my money stolen and now I can't get home, can you please transfer me some money?" (it's happened).

The train system here is so unreliable that you NEED to be able to update others on how your trip is going. It's too dangerous in this city for a girl like me to walk around alone if she can help it (I have to sometimes, though). Somebody mentioned text messages, which would be a wonderful solution to the problem - except that I can barely afford my $50/month as it is. I can't spend the extra $15/month for text messaging, so it costs me a lot of money to text.

There are sections of the train lines where you can't use your cell phone, though - the train goes underground and signals don't get through. THAT has never been a problem, as these stretches rarely last more than ten minutes. But to ban phone usage entirely? Bad idea.

Then again, my experience is probably different than yours, with the differences between Germany and America...

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

Over here, I'd just be happy if they banned the damned Chavs from playing the latest r'n'b crap through their phone's speaker, but it does annoy me when you are squashed into a train and you have some self-important businessman talking down the phone an inch from your ear in the most annoying voice ever! Grrr.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I've never owned a mobile phone, but one of the times I've most wanted one is when using public transit. Because if I'm going somewhere and being picked up when I get there, and there is a change in the schedule because the bus/train isn't running on its schedule, I'd really like to be able to call the people picking me up and let them know.