Cell phones are operating again in busy New York City tunnels, after being turned off July 7 following terrorist attacks in subways in London.
Service in the Lincoln and Holland tunnels was stopped for nearly two weeks. Questions had been raised about the process that led to decisions to shut down mobile-phone service in the four tunnels in light of confusion and other factors involved in those actions in the immediate aftermath of the deadly London attacks.
Nevertheless, wireless signals can get through all four tunnels again. That’s good news for all of the travelers whose cars overheat, run out of gas or get the unfortunate flat tire as they go about their daily lives
But the incident underscores the strange relationship between wireless technologies and public safety.
It’s as convoluted today as it ever has been.
In the very places cell phones have been banned, they have provided critical links during times of emergency. Students used their cell phones to get messages to worried parents during the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999. Quick-thinking passengers on airplanes during 9/11 relayed important details about the hijacking to personnel on the ground. And yet some schools ban cell phones in class, and people are not allowed to make wireless calls during flight.
Then again, cell phones have been used to detonate bombs.
While more mundane, people have polar opinions about whether drivers should be allowed to use cell phones while they are driving. In newspapers across the country, the opinion pages are full of people debating the issue, even as the federal government and insurance industry study the matter.
During disasters, natural or otherwise, history has shown that sometimes the best communications tool is wireless and other times it’s the one tethered to a cord.
People again are discussing the pros and cons of using using cell phones as part of the Emergency Alert System. A text message could be a quick way to get word out of an impending tornado. And in acedemia, schools are battling how to stop students from cheating on exams by using the text messages.
Against that backdrop, the decision by New York and New Jersey security officials to turn off cell-phone service, only to restore it a few weeks later, makes perfect sense.
Because wireless phones, like all technologies, don’t come with a moral compass. But if they did, it would be the ultimate app.
