The metro pollutes

One of the most polluted and polluting places in Santiago, Chile has to be its metro. Not that it’s dirty; the Metro’s pollution is visual and acoustic.

One of the great modern problems is info pollution, and the metro is full of information pollution.

Signage nobody understands.

On top of the annoying noise the metro already makes by itself, every time a car opens there is a voice giving orders to the worker automatons getting on or off, dictating rules of behavior to them. Confusing messages, badly written and dictatorial. Not to mention the pseudo police who guard the corridors and make sure you don’t cross the yellow line.

Ads, ads, everywhere. The metro is one big commercial break.

And the worst of it is SubTV.

Flat-screen TVs at full volume on the platforms and in the cars. I have had to swallow a 15 to 20 minute run of commercials inside a metro car. It’s worse than TV.

I gave up TV a long time ago. I don’t want to watch TV, and the Santiago Metro forces me to watch the worst TV there is, the most unbearable infomercial of all, the one you can’t change or dodge, because otherwise you won’t get to work on time.

The metro is abusive. Sub TV is abusive.

No wonder we Santiaguinos are always stressed out.

The worst part is that this is going to keep getting worse, especially now that Christmas is coming and it’s time to sell, sell, sell.

Sub TV must disappear, or be switched off for a long while.