December 25, 2005
Cell phones versus silence: commuter battle heats up
All Maggie Bergara wanted for Christmas was a quiet car, explains Record Online. As the woman began fantasizing about buying "one of those zappers" in October, she wondered: "Can we do this?"
The Federal Communications Commission has some objections. "If it were only that easy, we'd probably be buying them by the case," sighed Dan Brucker, a spokesman for Metro-North. Cell phone abuse is still among our top quality-of-ride complaints."
It's a crime to jam or block radio signals. And the prohibition extends to making, importing, selling or operating devices that do that. Remember "importing" when you're surfing the Internet and comparing prices.
The transit agencies say the actual number of complaints, however, has fallen over the past three years as cell phones have become commonplace and businesses of every description have devised policies regarding their use.
"The coolness of cell phones is so over," said Dan Brucker, a spokesman for Metro-North. "Cell phone abusers have become the new smokers. People feel empowered because there's a consensus now about how they should be used in public places so they're quick to confront and ostracize abusers."
"But I think it's a little harder to misbehave on the bus because the driver is right there," said Christine Falzone, at Short Line. "And our customers know if a passenger misbehaves, the driver can - and will - pull over to the side of the road and put the passenger off the bus. You can't do that with a train."
At NJ Transit, cell phone abuse is still enough of an issue among commuters that the agency is exploring the possibility of introducing quiet cars.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/12/011030.htm
