Nick makes a good point about public transit being improved by smart phones.
They’ve made it more fun! When I worked at Microsoft ten years ago, you would occasionally see some twenty-something male bus rider with a Game Boy Advance. But no self-respecting person who’s not a twenty-something male geek would walk around with something like that. The [sic] will, however, walk around with an iPhone or Galaxy Nexus, which they can use to read news, play games, do crossword puzzles, or get some actual work done.
It has long puzzled me why The Seattle Times (for example, but it’s not the only daily paper where it’s true) is so hostile to public transit. I mean I usually write for HA on my laptop (like I’m doing now) when I’m on public transit. But people are always on their phones and reading newspapers and books.
Maybe it’s different for me because of the stories of my grandfather riding into New York City from Connecticut for decades. He started the day with The New York Times, and ended each day with the evening paper. Nowadays, my uncle takes the same route. He reads the paper every morning, and writes letters to his elected officials most evenings. You can’t really do that if you’re in traffic.
There’s been a few studies out that talked about how smart phones are part of the reason that millennial’s weren’t all that into cars.
Can’t seem to find them at the moment…
The worst possible thing that could happen to ST circulation would be if subscribers actually read it vice using it for puppy training, bird cage lining and fish wrapping.
He reads the paper every morning, and writes letters to his elected officials most evenings. You can’t really do that if you’re in traffic.
Have you looked around recently at some of the things that ‘drivers’ (and I use the term loosely) are doing while behind the wheel? Just today a woman pulled up next to me at a light, and slammed on her brakes just before hitting the car that was in front of her. She had a notepad balanced on the steering wheel and was writing.
Tsk tsk
Carl, you ASSUME ST “readers” actually read things other than the ST.
I suspect anyone who reads the Times has no need to read in their cars as the content of the Times is pretty much adequately concerned du8irng their morning coffee and daily elimination of feces and urine.
The rest of the ST, the few ads it runs, certainly can be consumed during traffic stops.
People selling ST subscriptions don’t even try to sell it for the content any more. They just say you should buy it for the ads. Some times of the year they will offer you a free subscription for six months, which you can cancel at any time. It seems to me that they are fudging the “paid” circulation figures with such tactics.
@5 A few years ago, we decided to subscribe only to the “weekend” package from the ST (Fri/Sat/Sun). They’ve kept shoving the weekday editions down our throats for free, no matter how much we try to persuade them to stop.
I’m afflicted with the inability to read for any length of time in a moving car or bus without becoming nauseous. The train is another matter. I don’t know about light rail–guess I’ll have to try that some time.
As a bus commuter between Seattle and the Eastside, I get the impression that the only time drivers in Bellevue and Redmond give driving their undivided attention is when they’re on freeway ramps trying to show the world what hot stuff they are.