Many visitors to this website will have no doubt have read or heard about an excellent London wide campaign being run my two of my ward constituents, Tom Wright and Valeria Martinelli (pictured above), to get Transport for London, which runs London’s bus and tube network, to ban music being played out loud on the buses.
Tom has asked me to publicise the campaign on this site and ask you for your support!
Tom and Valeria’s ‘music on buses’ campaign started when they asked some passengers who were travelling on the same bus to turn down the volume on loud music they were playing. Instead of an apology all they received was a load of abuse.
Rather than sit and back and complain to themselves about the situation, Tom and Valeria did what many people these days wouldn’t, they started a campaign to get ‘the powers that be’ to ban loud music – where people are not using headphones – on public transport.
And what a campaign it is!
Since Tom and Valeria launched their online petition more than 3000 people have signed up!
London Assembly Members and MPs of all parties have been falling over themselves to help the campaign and now, as you will see from this recent BBC report, even the Mayor of London has agreed that he may have to look at imposing some tough sanctions for people who persist in deliberately disturbing fellow passengers.
Very well done to both Tom and Valeria for their superb campaign!
To find out more and to sign Tom and Valeria’s online petition please go to: www.hovis21.com
might this not increase violence on public transport? japan’s proclivity for anything miniature and, in particular, transportable entertainment, stems in part from their having to use overcrowded public transport – the iPod, for example, creates an element of privacy in a situation where your personal space is at its lowest.
I’m not pleased by individuals playing music loudly (sometimes delibaretly so as background to their conversation with friends, using a mobile phone on speaker), but I use an iPod on public transport pretty reasonably (I do check the music isn’t blaring before I out the headphones in), as do many others. banning them would hardly make any sense. If public transport is crowded and they are prevented from using entertainment to create the illusion of personal space, the chances of violence/anti-social behaviour could increase.
banning music altogether isn’t the key, since it would apply to this latter group. and given a choice between having to listen to someone playing some annoying chart hit and having them be aggressive, i know which one I’d choose.
darn. that was vaguely on point and serious.
Hi there and thanks for your post. I don’t think Tom and Valeria want to ban people listening to their ipods and headphones, rather they – like many of us – are just fed up with people who insist on blaring out their music on speaker phones…I wholeheartedly support them on this. Just like the eating of pungent hot fast food on the tube or the buses, playing music out loud on public transport is totally inconsiderate. BTW, nothing wrong with ‘being vaguely on point and serious’! I get like that too sometimes 😉
Spot on, Miranda.
As the site says, we’re seeking an enforcement of the existing transport byelaws that say passengers cannot play music out loud to the annoyance of their fellow passengers.
We’re not trying to ban iPods and personal music players since these are generally used with headphones.
We WANT people to use headphones. Simple as that.
Thanks for the support.
Tom and Valeria
well in that case I’m in support of the motion, it was just that the ken livingstone stuff made it sound like all music would be banned. I’m agreed that using a mobile phone as a mini ghetto blaster is massively annoying. thanks for the clarification of your campaign.
Thanks, Scrybe. My fault! Take care. Miranda
Nah, it was the linked page (BBC) which was vague on detail. I’ll see you ate the young labour thing tonight – you might recognise me as the vaguely on-point and kind-of-serious one, lol. This mature-posting thing is starting to grow on me. ;P
Fantastic campaign, I have signed and am encouraging people to sign your petition. I use buses everyday for work and am truly sick of hearing other peoples preference in music, whether i like it or not.
I have just found your page online after sending an email to my local bus service to complain about music on buses. I now live in Leicester but used to live in London and can verify that this annoyance is occuring nationwide. It is just INTOLERABLE! I would be interested to hear what the outcome was to your campaign? I’m thinking of starting my own after being subjected to tinny happy hardcore all the way to work at 7am… grrr!