The hilarity never ends when talking about cell phone service in the subways. The City Council spoke to the MTA about the agency's upcoming cell phone service plans, and apparently some members suggested that there should be "quiet cars" on the subway. We cannot stop laughing!
City Councilman Oliver Koppell suggested that quiet cars would be a haven from the chattering masses who would use cell phones in the cars. (Let's not forget that the plan for wire subway stations is only for stations, not tunnels - whereas aboveground cell service has been around, since, well, whenever cell service was first offered.) Per the Daily News, Koppell said, "You may say, 'People won't listen.' But there's a tendency for self-policing in that system. So, if you have a quiet car ... and someone gets on and starts talking on the cell phone, other passengers will say, 'This is a quiet car, please turn off the cell phone.' Generally, that works."
Koppell definitely has an optimistic view of the average subway rider. We're not sure that people like listening to even gentle suggestions from other straphangers. If you can't convince people to stop yammering when they're just talking to each other - or give up their seats to a pregnant woman/senior citizen/parent with baby - how will quiet car policing work?
Anyway, the MTA doesn't think it will add cell phone service to tunnels, fearing customer reaction. And City Councilman John Liu, head of the Transportation Committee said, "a subway train is not really the place you go for a lot of peace and quiet tranquility. There's plenty of noise on the subway already." Also, how will one find a quiet car, when you can't travel between the train cars. So many questions!
