Incontinental Breakfast

NYC Subway Map - Credit www.mta.info

“Ya’ll pay $1800 for your apartments, I pay $2.25. I got air conditioning, and a barbecue (the third rail). This is a ten car mobile home. I don’t come into your home and leave a mess, why ya’ll coming into mine?”says a boisterous man riding the 2 train towards the Bronx in lower Manhattan.

And he’s not wrong. The New York subway system is an intricate, fascinating web of vessels, providing transportation, and at times, housing to the residents of the city. The underground circus pulsates with passive riders, performers, and pickpockets. Like Paris, Berlin, London and Japan, the MTA has made strides to make travel in NYC comfortable, and cheap. There are rules against eating or drinking, and it is against the law not to relinquish your seat to a disabled person. However, there are still unspoken rules that are not being addressed. There is a desperate need for etiquette on the trains, something generations young and old seem to overlook every time they swipe their MTA cards.

The most recent epidemic is the influx of hypersonic ipod levels. People forget how silent the trains are while traveling between stations. Anytime your mp3 player’s volume is set to %50 or higher, everyone around you can hear it. Any high tones cut through, even with earbud style head phones. Songs with horn sections, or urban beats with lots of hi-hat, also come through. But the problem is not the style of music, it’s with the listener. People may be deaf, but I think they are just unaware. They forget that when they enter into a crowded train (or elevator, or library, or airplane), they are not the only person in that space. This a city with millions of people, you would think it would be hard to forget everyone around you, but that is the culture we have created. It’s a “me first” world, and as long as I get to hear my songs, I am fine. Everyone else can taste it.

Understandably, riding the subway for many people takes up hours everyday, and ipods help alleviate the drone of passing stations and “beware of the closing doors” etc. But this is no excuse for forgetting that not everyone wants to hear your music, and we especially don’t want to hear you sing along to it. On a train, everyone is trapped. Whether it’s for one stop, or an hour commute, every time you blast your ipod, you are subjecting everyone around you to the virus of stereo. Yet despite the epidemic, there is nothing we can do to stop it. Nearly every youngster has some mp3 device or iphone, and nearly all of them are half-deaf already from hours of Ke$ha and Miley Cyrus. The future of silent trains is bleak.

Apparently I am not the only one who notices, Katie Couric did a small excerpt, where she cites EU research, which says that listening to your music too loud can cause significant damage (like working in a factory). I am certainly not comfortable listening to Katie Couric without autotune, but this will have to do.

But, keep in mind, I wasn’t in New York in the 80′s. Bernie Goetz had to worry about being robbed or shot. I just worry about too much snare. Sure, it’s a small gripe, but I ride everyday. And many of you do too. It’s not just subway cars. It’ for the guy next to you on your next flight, it’s for the girl across from you at the library, it’s for the dad rocking too loud to Train in the elevator, it’s for the group of 12 year olds, all with different colored ipod nanos, listening to their music, one earbud in, the other ear drowned by all their friends’ music and the latest gossip about which teletubby is the gayest.

My admonition is to fight the urge to drown the sound of rail cars, the louder it is for you, the louder it is for us.  Whether it’s on MTA, or anywhere in public, remember that just because your ipod is in, doesn’t mean the world disappears. We are all still here. We can hear you.