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Could A Ban On Cell Phones On Transit Increase GHG Emissions?

By crooky | April 17, 2008

Unless you’re new to this blog, you already know I’m a consultant. You might also have guessed that I work with folks in the high tech industry. That being the case, you might understand why I am opposed to legislation like that recently introduced in Austria which makes it illegal to talk on a cell phone on public transit. I’m not only against it on principle but I’m against it for ecological reasons.

“I don’t really understand what all the fuss is about,” said commuter Erich Matthes. “Who or what is so important that you can’t stay off your cell phone for half an hour? Must one really be reachable everywhere at all times?”

Yes. Yes I fucking do need to be reachable everywhere at all times. A consultant that you can’t consult when it’s convenient to you isn’t much of a consultant. Here’s where the conundrum comes in - do I need to be reachable while on transit? Yes. Why? Two reasons:

1. By taking transit, I’m cutting down on my personal expense of driving into downtown an hour each way and paying $18 for parking. That’s an economic incentive for me to take transit and directly impacts my family’s welfare. $18 buys a fair amount of diapers.

2. By taking transit, I’m reducing my carbon footprint. That’s a direct benefit to you.

So why in the hell would anyone want to put a law in place that might drive me off transit and back into the comfortable shelter of my car? Do I enjoy taking transit? No! It’s full of smelly, dirty people. I take transit because I’m trying to save money and help the environment.

If you take away my ability to stay in contact with my clients while I’m on transit, I’m no longer saving money and I’m starting to care a lot less about my carbon footprint. I’m not the only mobile professional that takes transit. During regular business hours, I would estimate that 10% of transit users are self-employed individuals like myself or salaried employees taking transit to get to and from meetings.

Canada cannot afford to drive as much as 10% of its public transit ridership back into cars. The math works like this for me. If I take transit and can talk on my phone, I can potentially do about $150 worth of work in a day while commuting. If I can’t talk on my phone, I’m potentially losing $150 per day. Why would I take transit?

Besides, I can tell you that people talking on their cellphones is nothing compared to annoying teenagers blathering on about whatever innane bullshit they’re pre-occupied with at the moment. I’d take one side of a business conversation over purile truant drama any day.

Don’t ban cell phones. Ban stupid teenagers. The net effect will make transit much more pleasant.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for ten years.

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Topics: Cars, Policy, Technology |

2 Responses to “Could A Ban On Cell Phones On Transit Increase GHG Emissions?”

  1. Sally Felkai Says:
    April 21st, 2008 at 9:29 am

    Go Aaron Go! I fully concur. There’s already plenty of incentive not to take or make a call on public transit due to bus / train noise and lack of privacy. If someone is on the phone, they probably really need to be on the phone and they’ll likely keep it as short as possible. Banning it is ludicrous.

  2. Aaron Cruikshank Says:
    April 21st, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Hahaha. Thanks.

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