Dear Editor:
Speaking of torture…..
The public address announcements in the Path Station have recently upgraded from fairly annoying to intensely irritating.
In the Grove Street Station this morning for example, the announcement was broadcast literally every one and a half minutes. That meant innocent citizens had to listen to the same long message as many as five times before getting on to the train. By then, the only passengers whose faces weren’t contorted into masks of tormented agony were those with high-volume Ipods.
What’s wrong with the announcements?
1. Too loud. The ear-numbing volume makes it impossible to read or think or carry on a conversation.
2. Too frequent. To have to listen to the recitation once is bad enough, but to inflict multiple listening on the public is unconscionable.
3. Too long. The announcement begins; “This is traffic reporter Bernie Laganblast reminding you…” This is a time waster. We don’t care that the announcer is a traffic reporter. And, no offense to Bernie, but frankly we don’t care that his name is Bernie Laganblast. Not of any interest. The announcement goes on to give us phone numbers and then repeats them and at the end makes a pitch that we refill our smart ling card online. A new addition is having five second pauses between sections. These pauses serve no purpose except to trick the listener into thinking the announcement is over and then zap him or her by continuing.
4. Too ineffective. Telling people which phone numbers they should call if they see something suspicious is ineffective. If somebody sees, say, a ticking time bomb sitting on the platform, are they really going to remember what phone number to call? Why not post the numbers in big letters were they can be seen.
5. Too insulting. Asking us to take our trash with us is rude. We know what to do with our trash and those who don’t, those who want to leave trash around the station, aren’t going to be stopped by incessant lectures. Further, if pollution is what the announcement is trying to prevent, what about noise pollution? That’s real, that corrupts the environment that makes life less pleasant. How about, we won’t pollute, if you won’t pollute.
Obviously the people in charge of the announcements (I checked and it turns out the rumors is not true that they used to work in Abu Ghraib) have a job to do. But they need to know that how they’re doing that job right now is making a lot of people miserable.
I say, cancel the announcements and get into making big, eye catching signs.
Sincerely
Gregg Kreutz