Can banning ‘bare beating’ force people to wear headphones on the tube?
‘Headphone dodgers’ who listen to music on the tube with the sound up are easy to hate but ‘bare beating’ is a problem that is harder to solve than you think, argues James Ford
Public transport is often seen as an inherently good thing. Done well, transport policy can be a silver bullet that solves other, seemingly intractable, challenges. Promoting cycling, for example, can reduce congestion, improve public health and fight climate change. But transport policy can also be a double-edged sword. All too often there are unintended and unforeseen consequences. For all the benefits of London’s wholehearted embrace of cycling, we are also left with pavements festooned with abandoned hire bikes.
Installing wi-fi on the capital’s transport network (a policy I was very peripherally involved with whilst working at City Hall) is a further case in point Thanks to this policy initiative, my phone works when I am on the tube. Unfortunately, it also means the phone of the person sitting next to me on the tube works. And the person sitting next to me is an idiot who loves Tiktok but won’t use his headphones. When considering this initiative from our ivory tower at City Hall, we debated many negative scenarios that could arise, including whether it meant that terrorists would find it easier to detonate devices remotely. However, we woefully neglected to consider just how many Londoners were selfish jerks.
We woefully neglected to consider just how many Londoners were selfish jerks
The failure to use headphones has become a modern menace. Adrian Chiles described it as “a giant two-fingered gesture to the rest of the world” whilst The Evening Standard said it was “a sign of the apocalypse.” Indeed, there are so many selfish jerks in the capital that this phenomenon has even been named – ‘bare beating’ – whilst those who perpetrate this crime against good manners have earned their own moniker – ‘headphone dodgers’. One poll found that eight out of 10 people have been bothered by these selfish individuals, with four out of 10 people claiming the problem is on the rise. Bare beating has become so endemic that politicians have been compelled to get involved. During last year’s City Hall elections, Conservative hopeful Susan Hall said passengers playing music out loud should be thrown off the Tube. More recently, the Lib Dems have floated the idea of a £1000 fine for headphone dodgers (a policy that 65 per cent of people support according to YouGov).
Fines for anti-social behaviour already exist
However, Londoners who long for their journeys to return to the blissful silence of old need to manage their expectations. The problem is not a lack of existing policy – legislation already exists to impose fines for anti-social behaviour on buses and other forms of transport. The issue is enforcement. Although headphone dodgers irritate eight out of 10 people, some six out of 10 said they were afraid to challenge the headphone dodger personally. Despite currently funding around 2,000 police officers and 500 uniformed fare enforcement officers to patrol the capital’s buses and trains, TfL has enough of a problem trying to get passengers to pay their fares, enforcing the ban on drinking alcohol or tackling more serious criminal activity such as sexual assault, drug-taking or knife crime. In most cases, the CCTV network does not pick up noise. Trying to enforce a ban on ‘bare beating’ or impose sizeable fines will inevitably fall to TfL’s already hard-put-upon frontline staff – bus drivers, DLR ‘train captains’ and those trying to marshal passengers on station platforms – which will result in altercations, assaults and delays. Such a situation is unlikely to please the public, policy makers or the transport unions. Little wonder that this is a debate that Sadiq Khan has yet to wade in on.
Headphone dodgers may be a scourge that is easy to identify and hard to ignore. However, there is no quick, easy or painless fix. Unless we are willing to invest significant sums in greater enforcement – and pay the higher fares that will inevitably follow – then bare beating may be something we have to tolerate for some time yet. After all if it was possible to stop people being selfish jerks, we would have done it already.
James Ford is a public affairs consultant and former advisor on transport, environment and technology policy to then mayor of London Boris Johnson