Comments on: How San Francisco Commuters Consume Media on Their Way to Work on BART

By: Übergangsformen zum Ende des gedruckten Buches — CARTA

Übergangsformen zum Ende des gedruckten Buches — CARTA — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:18:09 +0000

[...] Thomas Hawk hat in der U-Bahn von San Francisco (BART) Pendler (nicht repräsentativ) beobachtet und wurde überrascht: Zeitungen und ganz normale Bücher haben immer noch einen hohen Stellenwert, selbst im Herzen des Silicon Valley. Immerhin 31 % der Pendler lasen auf Papier, gegenüber nur 15 %, die elektronische Medien nutzten. [...]

By: bwl zwei null · Übergangsformen zum Ende des gedruckten Buches

bwl zwei null · Übergangsformen zum Ende des gedruckten Buches — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:01:31 +0000

By: John Wright

John Wright — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:55:58 +0000

I think it would be interesting if you repeated your survey on some regular basis, say quarterly, and see how the numbers change over time. It would also be interesting to see if the introduction of wifi service really changes the numbers. I wouldn’t expect it to make much difference if it isn’t free.

By: What do you do on public transit? Nothing… or something? | San Francisco Metblogs

Wed, 06 May 2009 18:23:18 +0000

[...] photographer Thomas Hawk made a very interesting post on his website today, reporting his “unscientific survey” of what commuters were doing on his 9 a.m. BART [...]

By: Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:30:48 +0000

TVHarmony, yes, a lot of people, in fact most, who were using a mobile device had headphones on. Some people had headphones on but were sleeping or not looking at their mobile device and I counted them as doing nothing, so certainly listening to things might be slightly higher.

Personally I go back and forth about wearing headphones. A lot of times I just want to be by myself and shoot and not interact with people and I wear them. They are just that, a personal interaction avoidance system. i also really love music.

On the other hand, I’ve been wearing headphones much less when I shoot lately. Part of it is I’ll be shooting in some higher crime areas and I want to have more control over my senses and not appear as a target and also I genuinely seem to want to interact with strangers more these days. Especially since starting my $2 portrait project I’m much more interested in actually engaging people that exist in the spaces that I’m shooting when appropriate.

By: TVHarmony

TVHarmony — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:26:04 +0000

Just eyeballing it, that seems about the same as coming up the peninsula side going into SF on BART. The only difference I see, which may very well be in your definition of “consuming media”, is the number of people wearing headphones listening to an MP3 player or radio, which I would judge to be higher if they are considered “Using a mobile device”.

It seems like there is a cultural shift where people wear headphones in public spaces as a “talking stranger avoidance” mechanism as opposed to simply “rocking out”, so perhaps that shouldn’t be counted anyways.

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:34:33 +0000

I suspect that once the Wi-Fi system starts to be turned on, especially because it will be free and discounted in various places before the system is complete, people who otherwise would have done nothing will wind up doing something. (Although I have seen studies that show the average adult American sleeps under 5 hours a night, which is horrifying, and means that a lot of people *should be sleeping on BART*.)

Apple’s recent release of iPod touch sales numbers also show that with Wi-Fi in place, there’s a large audience of folks without smartphones but with Wi-Fi devices that they could make use of.

By: Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:24:41 +0000

Good point Carlos! Haha, I corrected that. Although sometimes I am excited to be getting off at Embarcadero if it’s a crowded train.

Lionel, yes, different commute lines could be quite different in composition. This commute line was the Pittsburg/Baypoint line so most of the passengers were coming from Contra Costa County (Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, etc.) in addition to Oakland (Rockridge, MacArthur, downtown Oakland, etc.).

By: Lionel Valdellon

Lionel Valdellon — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:10:44 +0000

I have a feeling your numbers will rise exponentially if you take the BART from Fremont to San Francisco. The number of mobile device and laptop users on a morning trip seem pretty high to me.

By: Cory O'Brien

Cory O'Brien — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:06:15 +0000

I read through my RSS feeds on my iPhone on BART, but I’m always surprised by how I seem to be in the minority, and how many people either consume old media, or do nothing. In my informal ‘looking around during the commute’ poll, I’d say that your numbers are pretty spot on, and about what I see on an average day. I guess even in San Fran we’ve got a long way to go till tech takes over the world.