Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Kevin McLaughlin of Autoshare points us to this article in today's New York Times, about how New York City's subway system––encompassing some 277 underground stations––is to be set up over the next six years to allow for cellphone usage. Transit Wireless, the company that won the right to set up the network, will give the transit system at least $50 million over 10 years, and will incur all costs associated with building the network.
The deal is basically a winner for all parties: Transit Wireless makes money from cellphone companies to provide access to the network; cellphone companies get customers who are spending more money by using their cellphones in more places; the MTA gets money to improve their system without having to spend a penny themselves; and transit riders are safer, happier, and more connected. It's a win–win–win–win situation.
The Times's article cites the usual concerns, like terrorism and rudeness, but both are easily dismissed. For terrorism fears––that is, that someone could remotely detonate a bomb on the subway with a cellphone––one of the reasons why the MTA is adding the cellphone network in the first place is for emergency response, and it's not as if people dedicated to committing a terrorist act are being stopped by only getting one bar on their Motorola. And as far as rudeness or annoyingness goes, the subway is far from a beacon for human perfection as is, and it's not the preferred destination for people who want to avoid human contact. Surely we can deal.
So then there's the inevitable question: what, if anything, will the TTC do now that New York's subway system is, once again, leading the way?
Photo by David Topping, from the New York City Flickr set.
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I don't recall a time when the MTA wasn't leading the way - it's the biggest subway in north america.
Also in chicago you can use your cell (in the tunnels too) if you have US cellular - stupid but it works. And 911 access has been available for years.
Re: "and transit riders are safer, happier, and more connected"
I don't see how cell phones would make transit riders safer. More likely, it will make them less attentive to their surroundings which actually makes them less safe.
As for the happier - I'm not sure listening to the inane conversations of my fellow travelers will improve my subway ride since it certainly hasn't improved the bus/streetcar rides.
My trip home on the Yonge line is normally a quiet affair, crowded or otherwise. Introducing phones into the equation would make the experience unbearable. It's not okay to force loud telephone conversations on strangers, but that is what would happen.
As for emergencies, there are already radio communication systems and procedures in place for whatever may arise.
The TTC will do what it always does when lagging the field: Spend a few million bucks studying the issue and then let entropy take over.
The Berlin transit system (BVG) has had cell phone repeaters in their subway and S-bahn system for at least a decade. To Guest 2 and Derek's comments above, there are solutions to having to listen to "other people's inane conversations". These have been implemented in Japan and German transit systems in the form of Quiet Cars, where cell phone use is not allowed. And in my experience in Berlin, most people don't blab on for ages - even in cars where cell phones are allowed.
As a regular transit user I have often felt disadvantaged by not being able to phone someone briefly to negotiate a pickup or advise of a delay. To me, having cell phone repeaters (and Wifi?) on the TTC would make transit that much more attractive to users - isn't this what we should be aiming for?
Wow. I'm a New Yorker with some close ties to Toronto, so I read Torontoist as well as Gothamist, and ...well, I'm kind of amused at how highly you guys speak of the MTA! This is something that's been on the table for two years while we can't get express service in parts of Brooklyn, buses that actually show up, or a system that doesn't completely melt down underneath rainstorms. We are told this can help with the "If you see something, say something" campaign -- but that's really because the --number of station agents is continually being cut, and the station agents that are still in the stations are not trained in any sort of response and are actually forbidden from leaving their booths.
We are facing service cuts and fare hikes, and the MTA is wasting our time with cell phones in stations only (they're not wiring the tunnels) rather than dealing with the true problems facing the system. I know the TTC is facing a lot of similar issues, and I can't think of anything more disastrous for them to do than follow the MTA's lead. We are not a system to emulate, we are a lesson of what to avoid.
I ride a greyhound commuter bus a lot, and cell phone use is very reasonable there -- mostly people make quick calls to advise of delays and make plans. When I was in Paris I saw people on the phone regularly . . so there must be access. They spoke so quietly you usually couldn't hear them above the noise of the subway.
I'd be okay with picocells covering the platforms but not the tunnels. Alternatively, cells that could carry data but not voice might work too, since email is generally quiet :)
I believe this topic has been discussed at TTC but I don't know how far it has gone. However, all vendors must be allowed access as long as they pay an appropriate fee - Bell or Rogers shouldn't be allowed to lock the other providers out with a sole contract.
As far as radiation goes, picocells reduce it. When a phone is in an area like a subway platform where there is no signal, it goes into high power mode to try and find a tower. Having a lowpower picocell means the phone can communicate without jacking up its output and considering the number of phones crammed into say Yonge and Bloor platforms...
what, if anything, will the TTC do now that New York's subway system is, once again, leading the way?
How did it ever come to this? Remember the good old days?
New York Times, April 5 1981: TRANSIT DECLINE POSES A THREAT TO JOBS IN CITY
While business was once helped by companies' ease of access to their bankers, their lawyers, their advertising agencies and their work force, a wild card has now entered the game: unreliable public transportation that executives say delays meetings and production schedules, adds to inflationary pressures and threatens the crest of guarded optimism the city is riding.
...
Charles Bell, executive vice president of the Hilton International Corporation, operator of the new Vista International Hotel near the World Trade Center, said that even his company's recruitment had been affected.
''We tried to hire a senior executive from Toronto not long ago, to work in the main office,'' he said. ''After taking a look at the whole situation, the costs and what he learned from other executives about the unreliability of the system, he decided he'd stay where he was.''
New York Times, October 5 1982: TORONTO'S ORDER AWES CITY DELEGATION
The theme of the tour was that Toronto was a city where planning had successfully integrated the needs of residents, builders and workers in a way that was both pleasant and functional.
By all accounts, the [visiting 45 New York-area politicians] agreed that this city, home to some two million people, worked much better than anything they have known south of the border. They were impressed by subways that did not screech, by trim landscaping untouched by vandals and by streets so clean that the rare piece of litter looked out of place.
New York Times, August 7 1983: SIGHTSEEING TIPS IN TORONTO
With more than 2,500 buses, street cars, subway cars and trolley buses hauling more than 400 million passengers a year across more than 100 routes covering a 778-mile network, Toronto boasts one of the more sophisticated of urban transit systems.
And since the city plays host to nearly 20 million visitors a year, little wonder that the Toronto Transit Commission, familiarly known as the TTC, touts the virtues of its system for individuals out to see the sights.
New York Times, June 13 1988: WITH THE ECONOMIC SUMMIT, TORONTO HOPES VISITORS WILL SAVOR ITS MELTING POT
In a pre-summit cleanup, a crew was hired to sand-blast graffiti from the city's walls. After two weeks and a few dozen walls, the crew began running out of work. Around the 40 miles of subway that have been built since the 1950's, a passenger can move from station to station without encountering anything more sullying than discarded tickets. And along the city's showcase University Avenue, bounded by hospitals and corporate headquarters and monuments to Canada's dead in two world wars, flower beds bloom throughout the summer with hardly any vandalism.
Above all, Toronto is celebrated for its low rates of crime. Last year, there were 55 murders in the metropolitan area, compared with more than 500 in Detroit, a city 200 miles away with barely half Toronto's population.
The Metropolitan Toronto Police compared the 1984 crime figures for Toronto with those the Federal Bureau of Investigation provided for New York City. It found that a resident of New York City was nearly seven times more likely to be murdered that year than a resident of Toronto; nearly 10 times more likely to be robbed, and nearly 20 times more likely to have his car stolen.
[There's a future article for Torontoist -- wonder what those stats are today? I think New York is still worse by a factor of two...]
Seoul Metro has cell support, and it's indispensable.
Come on, get with the times. Graffiti is the highly laudable (but ridiculously underpaid) expression of urban art! So our sandblasters still don't have much to do.
So, then, there's the inevitable question: what, if anything, will the TTC do now that New York's subway system is, once again, leading the way?
NOTHING!
I was just in Japan and every single train I was in had signs saying no cell chatter and keep your phone on silent. Most people just texted, while the odd person would whisper with their hand over their mouth. I don't think there are "silent cars" anymore...they're all silent as far as I could tell.
@11: And remember, only if it's by lovable young hipsters! Otherwise, it's CRIME.
I'm not so concerned with the loud conversations on cell phones. It is all the people who don't know what their ring sounds like and let it go and go and go and go. I mean you set the ring why don't you know what it sounds like.
Not having that headache is a reasonable price to pay for not using my phone for the half hour or hour I'm on the train.
Plus, when a cell phone rings in an inappropriate place, it's a million times more annoying when it's a stupid ringtone of something like the William Tell Overture or "Hollaback Girl."