Cell Phones: Turn 'Em Off Or Take 'Em Outside

Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits

March 12, 2001 (5:03 PM EST)

Cell Phones: Turn 'Em Off Or Take 'Em Outside

In a New York City movie theater last week, as Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron shared the tender moments of a bittersweet romance, a man not only answered his ringing cell phone, but engaged in a conversation.

Fellow patrons "shhhhhed" the offender until he took his call to the lobby, said Ewnetu Admassu, a theater manager at another cinema, who had been enjoying his day off by taking in a flick.

In 1999, in a well-documented plea for silence, actor Laurence Fishburne halted a Broadway performance from the stage, breaking character and verbally scolding an audience member whose cell phone was ringing with: "Will you turn that $%&#@ thing off, please?" His plea was greeted with immediate and hearty applause.

And in a Long Beach, Calif., restaurant, some months ago, Stanley Roberts, president of restaurant review site we8there.com, was put off his meal when a surgeon at the next table, talking on a cell phone, related in vivid detail an operation on a patient's limb.

"I'm sitting there hearing how he cut the guy's arm open," Roberts said.

Civil words were exchanged and the surgeon apologized.

Roberts has called for a ban on cell phones in restaurants.

"We're so high tech we've forgotten how to communicate with each other [in person]," he said.

Roberts said he foresees a day when restaurants realize that it's "more PC to tell you to turn it off."

In many places, that day is here.

Theaters, restaurants, trains, and a growing number of public places are taking heed of complaints against cell phone users. Signs have been posted, staff have been trained, and users have been put on notice: turn it off or take it outside.

At the Claremont Caf, a cozy 40-seat restaurant in Boston's hip South End, the menu makes it clear: "For the comfort of all guests, please turn off cell phones."

Manager Jeffrey Santa Anna said the restaurant's owners added the message to menus about a year ago.

"It's a small restaurant," Santa Anna said. "If someone's phone rings, it's kind of rude. [While] most people put them on vibrate or a low ringer, they still ring. It's not like everybody shuts them off."

But while he does have to handle the occasional complaint, most people do step outside to take or make calls, he said.

Statistics from the National Restaurant Association (the other NRA) show that 42 percent of adults with cell phones said they have made or received a phone call while dining in a restaurant. Mike Mount, an NRA spokesman, said the group has no official policy on the matter.

"We allow restaurants to make their own decisions," Mount said.

The NRA also reports that 20 percent of member fine-dining establishments (those with entrees costing $25 and above) have instituted policies restricting cell phone use in their dining rooms. Figures are based on a survey released by the group last May.

Even Amtrak has taken action. In a pilot program launched late last year at the behest of frazzled commuters, it added a "quiet car" to the 6:05 a.m. train from Philadelphia to Washington DC. In this cocoon, lights are dimmed, the PA system is shut off, and beepers and phones are silenced. Cell phone use is not permitted unless passengers go into a rail phone booth within the car.

Amtrak is often favored over airline travel, specifically because commuters can use cell phones and laptops to work during travel.

"[But] people occasionally need a place to unplug," said Amtrak spokeswoman Karen Dunn. "We're responding to market demand."

Today six trains with routes in the Northeast Corridor have quiet cars. Two were added in February and two more came on line March 1. Response has been so positive that Amtrak is considering adding quiet cars to trains making cross-country journeys.

"I don't foresee the day when we'd phase [cell phones] out altogether," Dunn said. "We're trying to find a balance."

"They're taking the wrong approach," said Les Blomberg, executive director of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, Montpelier, Vt. "They should have a noisy car. The presumption ought to be that you're polite to your neighbor."

Although he is irked by cell phone users from time to time, Blomberg said he usually bites his tongue.

"When you're sitting there, you're considered impolite if you do anything about it," he said.

Luckily for Blomberg, he doesn't live in Boston. Bucking the growing cry for peace and quiet, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is seeking a company that will pay to equip Boston's subway tunnels with telecommunications antennas. The project would allow the city's 600,000 daily commuters to use cell phones, wireless Internet connections, and electronic pages while clacking along the oldest subway system in the country.

Washington D.C.'s Metro system has offered limited cell phone service since 1995. New York, San Francisco, and Seattle are working on it.

Blomberg likens the aural assault of cell phones to the noise presented by boom boxes in the 1980s.

"The only difference is that executives use cell phones," he said.

According to Blomberg, more civility is in order. People should set the ringers to vibrate and excuse themselves to talk, he said.

Carson Elliott agrees. An etiquette columnist for the Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Ga., Elliott urges cell phone users to get vibrating phones and practice discretion.

"Whenever someone gets their needs met at the expense of others, a breach of etiquette has occurred," she said.

Civility is a noble goal, but enforcement helps. Admassu, manager of the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on Manhattan's Upper West Side, describes the cell phone problem as "not significant, but it's very annoying. It's been getting worse the last year."

He has posted a sign at the box office notifying moviegoers that no cell phones are allowed past the ticket taker. And Admassu has trained staff to urge recalcitrant phone users to move away from theater doors. He said he is working on additional signage, but will refrain from on-screen notices as a matter of policy since the theater accepts no advertising and runs only film trailers before feature presentations.

Rick King, senior vice president of corporate communications at AMC Theaters, which operates 2,474 screens in 166 theaters nationwide, has encouraged audiences to keep quiet for 10 years by running screen notifications before a movie. King calls the cell phone problem "an occasional problem" of "forgetfulness."

In the last two or three years, AMC has put up "friendly signing" reminding people to turn their phones off.

So far, though, the company has refrained from screen notification mentioning cell phones specifically, King said.

And while an increasing number of signs point to reduced tolerance for beeping, ringing and loud voices, some folks seem to want it all: peace and quite and unlimited, untethered accessibility.

Cora Nucci is a freelance writer in New York. She can be reached at cnucci@nyc.rr.com.