Noise pollution redux

 We recently returned from a trip to New York City and Baltimore. Everywhere we went—hotels, restaurants, Uber cars, cabs—we were assaulted by music that we didn’t choose to hear. Unwanted music is a major peeve of mine. I like quiet. Five years ago, I wrote a post on this topic. Here it is, beginning with the history of how we got stuck in this situation:

In 1949, buses in Washington DC installed a system to play radio programs (mostly music) in their buses and streetcars—conveyances owned by The Capital Transit System, a privately-owned public utility. At least two riders, Franklin Pollak and Guy Martin, were seriously annoyed by this turn of events—so annoyed, in fact, that the Public Utility Commission of the District of Columbia were forced to hold several hearings, in which they concluded that “the playing of radio programming was not inconsistent with public convenience, comfort and safety.”  

Pollak and Martin appealed the decision, and the case ended up in the Supreme Court, which concluded that the radio programs did not violate: 1)  the First Amendment’s protection of Freedom of Speech (programs didn’t include objectionable propaganda); 2) did not violate the Fifth Amendment (the Due Process Clause does not guarantee a right of privacy in public transit equivalent to that in a person’s own home or vehicle). Justice Frankfurter chose not to participate in the case because he felt he couldn’t be objective: he believed himself to be a victim of music in the transit system. Justice Douglas dissented, arguing that playing music to a captive audience was contrary to the concept of liberty under the First Amendment and contrary to privacy under the Fifth Amendment.

Like Frankfurter, I feel victimized by the music. Like Douglas, I believe my liberty and privacy are being violated. But there are more reasons to object.  Noise pollution has serious effects on people: hearing impairment, tinnitus, hypertension, heart disease, changes in the immune system (most of these are stress related). Apparently, our sympathetic nervous systems are adversely affected by chronic noise.

If the Supreme Court can overturn Roe v. Wade, how about overturning “Public Utilities Commission of the District of Columbia et al. v. Pollak et al.” I could get behind that one.

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