Riding The Rails: Loud Talkers

I wavered between two topics for this post and I just had that extra push when I read an article on Yahoo about a woman who challenged the MTA Metro North Railroad employee. 

The woman in question (her name wasn’t given, of course!) was talking loudly on her cell phone even after other passengers complained.  I think what really sealed the deal on this situation was the woman’s response to the complaints.  She said that she was “too educated” to be kicked off the train and even questioned the others on where she attended school.  The classic, “Do you know who I am? Do you know where I went to school?”  Call me crazy, but when I encounter a loud talker on the train, especially on the phone, it doesn’t matter if you went to Harvard or dropped out of high school, you should know better than that.

It saddens me that this isn’t the first incident of its kind.  Lest we forget, last month’s famous video of the passenger who was ACTUALLY kicked off the train because of the lack of cell phone etiquette.  That video has since been pulled off Youtube, which is a bummer, because let’s face it, people need to use that as a warning.  As the MTA says, “If you see something, say something.”  Right now, as a commuter, I see a huge wall of obnoxious in the form of a loud cell phone talker.

It’s one thing to be on a near empty train and talking amongst your friends after a night out at a Rangers game and accidentally getting caught up in the moment or conversation that causes you to raise your voice (not saying I am thrilled with this either), but it’s another when you are blatantly talking loudly on your phone.  It’s not just the volume for me, but also the fact that I can’t eavesdrop on the whole conversation.  Here’s some advice person on phone acting like a tool, if you can’t hear them, hang up.  It’s pretty simple.  Cell phones actually have a red button you can press that has a picture of an old school phone receiver in the rest position. 

I once was stuck listening to a woman traveling to Cold Spring Harbor holding two different conversations on her phone at the same time.  An elderly lady was sitting next to me and rolled her eyes in exasperation to the offender.  I understand the urgency of connecting with people when it’s truly important, like an injury or a missing person, but this woman was babbling on about her bratty daughter wanting to go to a sleepover to her husband and yelling at him for not being strict with her.  That was one of the two topics, because she was also talking to a friend relaying not only her poor daughter’s woes, but also her husband’s responses and criticizing his parenting.  Hey lady!  The train during rush hour isn’t the time or the place for this conversation. 

I could go on for days about cell offenders and loud talkers.  I’ll reserve some thoughts and comments for a later date.  I will leave you with this gem, a couple of years ago, three girlfriends and I went on a road trip to Kentucky.  We went to a cool restaurant for lunch one day and they sold novelties.  One of the novelties was a notepad that I wound up buying “Cell Citations,” fining those disrupting the cool vibe of understood silence.  I think I’ll start using those, for I am Officer Shut Up.