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Comment by p10jkle | Hacker News Reader

There already is signal on many underground lines, and it’s pretty rare that people are playing things out loud in my experience?

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London, increasingly common. I’d say a third of the time when I take the tube. Combine that with people making loud calls, 100% of the time. But I find people imposing their music or tiktok videos more obnoxious than a builder discussing his next job a bit loudly.

A third of the time?

Sorry, nonsense. I use the tube several times a day and it's a real rarity.

I do worry about the tube becoming a cacophony of phone calls, but really? Everyone message now anyway so I reckon that'll be a rarity too.

It may also be highly dependent on which direction you travel. When you travel east from the city, you get totally different demographics than when you travel west.

Really? What do you mean?

They mean more immigrants live in certain neighbourhoods.

I've not noticed that correlation at all. I just wanted to see who was brave enough to actually speak their racism or whether they'd just suggest it in a cowardly way.

Race and culture are different things.

Yes, the demographic plays a big role.

I also never see this behaviour, but I pretty much only use the tube for commuting at peak times. I think commuters are generally better behaved. The sheer density of people means that anti social behaviour will get angrily shut down very quickly.

I think it will depend on your route and the time of your commute. I see fairly distinct behaviour at different times on the tube & Elizabeth Line: come in or leave late and it's full of people who are much less considerate, go in with the majority and there's a bit more social pressure against being inconsiderate.

The tube is ~80db (depending on line) so you're not going to hear it anyway.

but, if I was mayor, I would be getting the transport police to have a word with phones on speakers.

Hum. Who should you trust, me or your own ears?

Sorry I don't mean you're lying.

I mean it depends on the line. Old northernline == 80db.

Elizabeth line, much quieter, so you're gonna hear it more

My daily train to/from London Bridge to West Croydon is borderline unbearable.

It's because phones speakers aren't loud enough to be audible over the sound of the tube itself!

It is noticeable on buses and overground when people play things out load, but to be honest quite rare in the grand scheme of things.

That's true. I made several complaints about that to TFL before capitulating and just settling for noise-cancelling headphones.

Never been happier.

The clincher was noticing that the drivers themselves had access to ear defenders ... TFL said that that's because they're down there for extended periods of time. Sounds reasonable but I'm not buying that as a way out of not fixing the issue and exposing my ears to the worst bits of the tube.

Also has the ancillary benefits of blocking out those rare times (for me) when people do have their phone on speaker or are having a chat I'm uninterested in.

Welcome to the UK where citizens are so apathetic they don't care about aging infrastructure or government money being siphoned away.

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