Buses World News

3.11.10

NOISY BUSES * USA - Initiative to quiet ones

... Traffic, honking, music, the constant hum and chatter of the city. It’s all there ...

New York,NY,USA -2nd. Ave Sagas, by Benjamin Kabak -29 Oct 2010: ... Yet, as someone with a second floor apartment overlooking an avenue with a bus route, I can certainly attest to the fact that New York City’s buses are loud. They sigh and beep and groan their ways around residential neighborhoods, and when they arrive late at night, they have a way of piercing the quiet calm of the dark... The MTA recognizes that its buses are deafening, and now they’re prepared to act. As Samuel Goldsmith Pete Donohue reports today, the authority will spend $1 million to quite its 5900 buses by approximately 20 percent... The measures include installing a new muffler that wil reduce the noise from the suspension systems that activate at every stop... Transit are hopeful that these measures will restore a sense of peace along noisy bus routes. “This will improve the quality of life in the city by reducing noise pollution tremendously,” Joseph Smith, the head of Transit’s bus division, said.... (Photo from freefoto: New York Transit Bus)

Labels: noise on buses

26.5.08

NOISE in BUSES * USA - There's something about a bus that's tragic

I ride Metro buses several times a week and the latest aggravation is jabbering TV monitors

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -Los Angeles Times, by reader: Ben Harrison -20 May 2008: -- ... Most Metro buses now have two TV monitors, billed as entertainment and public service, but with a lot of advertising as well. Some of the time the monitors are merely on visual mode, which is not too bad, but then come the protracted periods of loud, intrusive jabbering (advertising, news, cooking shows, etc.) in English and Spanish. Most people I have talked to, including most bus drivers, find the noise irritating. For the most part the volume controls don't work or the drivers don't know how to adjust them... An absurdity: buses have signs indicating that it is not permitted to smoke, eat or play radios on the bus (except with ear-phones). This is a welcome recognition of how irritating it is to be at the mercy of somebody else's taste in music and noise. Why should Metro be exempt from its own rules?... At least some of the people who ride buses regularly (commuters to work, school, etc.) like to use the time for reading, preparing their work, listening to ipods, or even for quiet reflection or meditation. The audio noise is a direct attack on people's right to travel in peace... Public transportation already entails enough aggravations - traffic delays, frequent stop-starts, crowdedness, cell-phone shouters, loud-talking passengers, next-stop-announcements, etc., without adding another, which does not only assault the ears but victimizes passengers with aggressive advertising. This gives me one more reason to prefer driving to public transport...

Labels: noise on buses