Rant II

I was headed into the Yankee game last night and took the LIRR (Long Island Railroad) because I had lost the patience driving, having to navigate the Major Deegan Expressway.  Most of those trips took nearly 3 hours one way, and the drive, which features trucks driving in the left lane, (which irks the hell out of me) has been put to bed at least for the foreseeable future.  But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. 

Taking the train has it’s amenities even though the trip on the LIRR hasn’t changed much in terms of speed, for at least the last 40 years or so, which in itself is laughable when a Communist country like China has trains that travel at 140 mph or in excess of 200 Kilometers per hour. They still punch tickets which absolutely makes no sense living in the digital world we do, with respect to those that make their living doing so. Okay what’s your point?

Ever since some unfortunate riders have injured themselves not “minding the gap” between the train and the platform we have to incessantly listen, (at every station stop) a recording of this warning. Not satisfied with the approximately 15 warnings, we also have to listen to the conductors chime in with this same information. What, we didn’t hear the recording? Enough already, we get it. We don’t need the videos on the TV’s either of a hip hop recording while we sit in the station. Shut up already.

 Where are those recordings to drivers to signal when changing lanes? We never hear that warning. How many more accidents and lives would that save? How many times have we been on the road and watched the sloths who don’t signal or burst out from one lane to the other? I never hear anyone trumpeting this AVISO.  There is no public service program like  this, but we have to hear “mind the gap” a million times. Or that recording that’s on the escalator of that woman who actually tries to play with voice inflection to get our attention. Last night I listened and the escalator was broken. But ho, not the recording. “Look around, be careful." SHUT UP! The same recording has been  playing for ten years.  Why not a recording for escalator riders who do not walk up the escalator, to stay to the right so that those who are moving quickly, a chance to walk and "escalate". This is common practice in England. They seem to have a more considerate nature than those of us here in the States. 

What is it with these warning programs? Who is in charge of these public service programs?  These are well  intentioned, but  American society concentrates way too much on events that hit the newspapers and have public outcry. These programs that affect the very few and are blasted at the public at large, are a waste of taxpayer dolllars that could be better served spent on those that affect the masses, like signal when changing lanes. Oh and those smokers that flick their smoked butts into the street, should be required to sweep a street beginning to end as their public service requirement.