Austria’s second largest city, Graz, is cracking down on cell phone use during public transport. Commuters are being ordered to 
keep their phones on silent mode and can’t talk on the phone while in transit.
“I know I insulted the cell phone goddess a little,” Graz Mayor Siegfried Nagl said.
“But people need to know they don’t have the right to be on the telephone permanently and constantly,” he told Austrian television. “It’s just not healthy to never be able to get any peace and quiet.”
There has been a backlash against public cell phone use around the world. France’s national railway has recently created phone-free “Zen Zones” on high-speed trains. U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio has filed legislation that ensures Americans won’t be subjected to cell phone talk while on airlines. New Jersey fines people $100 for talking or texting while driving. At least 21 states in the U.S. are considering legislation to ban texting while driving.
Banning cell phone use in public doesn’t always work. Last May, Sweden’s Stockholm Transport did away with cell phone free zones on subways, buses and commuter trains just 10 months after launching the spaces.
“It relied on people showing respect, but it didn’t really work,” spokesman Bjorn Holmberg said: Too many passengers wanted to use their commute to catch up on work calls, and some just felt safer with cell phones in hand.
The Graz ban is voluntary and there won’t be any tickets handed out to people who breach the ban. A recent poll in Austria
shows that two out of three Austrians support the idea of getting cell phones under control in public places. I wonder if two out of three people in Graz follow the ban, or if most people don’t follow the ban; figuring their calls are just too important to ignore.
as someone who was born in graz and who has lived in munich, germany, i can tell you that the city of munich has also aready tried to ban cell phones from public traffic. four years later they gave up, because it was not possible to repress the cell phone owners.
wow, that’s totally blown out of proportion. that backlash is there for a reason – because there’s a “code of mobile phone conduct” that has unwritten rules and people start following it through peer pressure (or group dynamics, hehe). i think people will respect that code eventually but don’t need to be ordered to do so.
most people dont like to talk infront of others anyway. nowadays, no ones impressed when you flash out your mobile. the only thing that really ticks me off are those who run loud music on their mobile speakers.
That’s too funny. My hometown gets “mobilecrunched” because of banning mobile phones from public. lol.
To give you an insight view whether people follow it or not –> they just don’t care ;-)
That’s hack on someone’s social right. How some one can tell us that when to use our cell phone and when not. Hospitals and fuel stations are something else but public transport. :-?
reminds me Munich some years go, when the driver of the tramway stopped because a girl was on phone, and ask her to terminate her call..
It’s about time! {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/giYVbyGUdx_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”It’s about time! ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/AVVHEriOgY”}}}