CTA Tattler

I was riding the Brown Line during the summer, and some woman gets on at Sedgwick and music is blaring from her. Can't figure out what is going on until she pulls her cell phone out of her bra! She continues to play music loud enough for the whole car to hear until she gets off. How thoughtful. The sound quality on these devices is pretty poor too, so no matter what music is playing, it sounds like crap.

Along the lines of cell phones and rudeness: I hate people who talk on their cell phones loud enough that everyone else in the train car or on the bus can overhear them. What did our mothers (and teachers) tell us about "indoor voices"? I should hope that that rule would apply on mass transit as well.

After hearing a ringtone for too long, I've just called out, "If you're not going to answer the f*cking thing, turn it off, ok?" Peer pressure's the only way to handle this.

You're asking the same people who 'banned' eating on the CTA to enforce a rule. Good luck with that.

We also have to ban those goddamn Nextel walkie-talkie phones & that idiotic chirping they do!

How can CTA even enforce these rules? The motorman is not going to stop the train just because some jerk is playing their music phone to warp 10 level. I just move to another car to avoid this.

What really bothers me is when a fat person sits next to me and i'm pinned to the window while they spread their legs. I can't even get up when my stop comes. I have to move every time.

Tolerance my friend

Tolerance my friend

I have a positive experience to report. I was riding the Pink line downtown once and a kid was playing his Nintendo with the sound on. I play games on my cell all the time - always with the sound OFF - so I know he can control that feature. It finally got to me so I got up and asked him if he could "turn it down" and he said "it's bothering you?" "yes, its a little loud" "okay, sure" The rest of the trip was good and my faith in the teen set was restored.
I do however, grit my teeth and curse Nextel for popularizing what was once just for work - the walkie-talkie function one some cells. Thankfully, it seems less popular now. Bless you, text messaging! :)

Having the chirp is sooo 2006. These days it's all about having your tunes on your phone, and unlimited texting. Who knows what it'll be next year. Maybe it'll all be about GPS, and kids will be wandering into traffic with their eyes glued to their cellphone screen looking at step-by-step directions that fail to mention that a CTA bus is barelling right towards them.

>>>"please be considerate when talking on the phone or listening to electronic devices so as not to disturb other passengers.".... too kind and gentle. <<<

The announcements are neither kind nor gentle when they're too loud themselves....... in the midst of all the other 'helpful' announcements - such as the three chirps ("All hands on deck! Something important coming down!") followed by the "momentarily delayed waiting for signals ahead" saga. (Sometimes the train is moving again before the announcement is even finished). As long as there've been trains, riders have been aware that sometimes trains stop for signals, and there's no reason except for their cloying concept of PR (after certain emergencies where riders were told nothing for long periods of time) why CTA needs to be apologizing for little 30-second pauses.

But if they have to do it, first have train cars checked for speaker-volume every once in a while, and encourage bus drivers to report in. Some of those speakers even approach rock-concert levels, and short of that a lot are louder than they need to be.

What "patience and understanding"?!

Rusty: That chirp may be soooo 2006 to you, but any bus I've been on that has more than 20 people on it inevitably will have someone with that goddamn chirping phone!

Inevitably and unfortunately, the kinds of people who think it's OK to play their music for all to hear are not the kinds of people who might go out of their way to read, let alone read about themselves being assholes.

I'll never forget the time I was sitting down on the 172, and saw two other passengers putting their belongings all over the seats next to them in the midst of a genteel "Please do not place your belongings..." announcement.

'Course the bus was almost completely empty, so no real problem, but...

I hate it when peopel put their stinkey feet on the seat, their shoe touches the armrest where someone is gonna come in with thier nice clean clothes and get feet/sidewalk germs on them. plus its disgusting!

I've always had this fantasy wherein, since my phone does the same thing, I would go stand right next to them, maybe even touching, and play something on my phone nonchalantly. Unfortunately I've never done this, because most of the people you see playing "music" on their phones look like the type that would start a fight if "disrespected" like that.

There was a 20-year old girl on the train a few weeks ago who was playing music from her phone. She had the tinny music going, completely uncaring of anyone else on the fairly crowded train. I kept staring at her across the aisle, eyebrows raised like, "Hey, what the hell." And she kept giving me filthy looks. Clearly, I was being the inconsiderate one.

Another time, a few months ago, two girls around 17 got on the Red Line at Berwyn with their music blaring from their phone. (I didn't realize they could actually play music that loud.) A woman near them asked if they would turn it down and they flat out said, "No," and went back to talking loudly to each other. Finally, I just stared at them until they noticed me. They both stopped talking and looked at me.

"Could you please turn that down?" I asked, as nicely as I could.

"Fuck you, no," one of them replied. "Doesn't the train say that if something bugs you, move to a different car?"

"Uh, no, it actually says-" I tried to say, but they cut me off.

"I ain't talking at you, bitch! Goddamn stupid bitch."

The best part is that they were caring a baby under two years old with them and I got the impression one of them was the mommy. That kid is going to have ZERO respect for anyone but himself as soon as he can talk.

The problem is that so many of the obnoxious people will not listen to you. And how are you supposed to win if there are no CTA people around. I wish that there were workers, who actually cared and did their jobs, to patrol the trains.

Kimberli, sounds like you are talking about some ignorant Black gals, but for the most part the truly obnoxious ones I have encountered have been White, and the offending electronic gadget has generally been a phone. Just a day ago, a gal talking so loud on her phone I could hear her from one end of the train to the other. Yes, I moved in the hope of getting away from her braying, self important screed!

My fantasy: To sit either with one of these people on the same seat or across from them and start loudly reciting from whatever I'm reading, enough to impede their converstation. I detect that people in general are getting a little less obnoxious with those things, and I go to many more places that ban their use, thank god. I won't carry one any more on principle - I hate the **&&^% things. You get 20 minutes of peace on your way to work in the morning, only to have that taken away from you too.

The worst loud conversation on a phone I've ever heard; was about this woman explaining to someone else that her mother was going through menopause, it was in a joking manner, but no one wants to hear that kind of garbage anyway. The worse part was when she had a call on the other line, and she had to tell the same story over again.

gross.

I keep an aerosal horn in my brief case. It emits a 120db sound. I find just one short toot on this quiets down most loud cell phone users. I've only had to use it twice. Usually just taking it out and showing it to them gets the message across. Of course my CPD badge helps.

The CTA has apparently been applying this to Licensed Amateur Radio Operators who carry hand held FM Transceivers with them.

This "Ordinance" does not have any jurisdiction over a Federal Government License that Federal regulations spell out, and those only restrictions (there are only 2 of them) are 1. No Operation on a watercraft without the Captain's permission and 2. No operating on an aircraft without the pilot's permission.

Everyplace else is fair game. There are those Licensed Amateurs who belong to Volunteer Public Safety Agencies (Government) and are required to be reached 24-7. These Departments and other recognized groups use License Amateurs. This includes Licensed Amateurs who are trained Skywarn Spotters during severe weather situations and are actively involved in NWS Communications at that time.

If you wouldn't tell an on-duty police officer or EMS personnel to dump their communications equipment while on your bus or train, don't expect us to give up our equipment either.

The cell phone thing is absolutely a good gripe, but not really practical because it isn't enforceable, nor will the CPD arrest anyone for using them because it violates MANY civil liberties and they have bigger crimes to worry about.