Legislating the unlegislatable
This, from the Honolulu Advertiser:
"Leave it to Rod Tam. While others worry about how the city's rail project will look or how loud it will sound, the Honolulu City Council is concerned about how it will smell....Under the measure introduced by Tam and Nestor Garcia, stinky riders on city public transportation could be ordered to get off the bus or train and issued a citation by police. If convicted of violating the "passenger code of conduct," which includes the ban on stinking, a person could be fined up to $500 and/or spend up to six months in jail, which may or may not improve their personal grooming".
I have not been able to track down much more about the legislations author, but if anyone else feels up to digging around on the Honolulu council web page, good luck - it is a real retina burner.
Anyway, all of us will have been downwind of the foul -smelling in confined spaces, but doubtless the niffy have not been told that they are offensive to the olfactory senses of others. As to enforcement, would folk have to pass through sniff-o-meters at train stations - and would this be prior or post ticket purchase? This has the makings of a great revenue spinner, in that if one bought a ticket and then got bounced at the barrier, who would want to queue in the queue of shame for a refund?
Always supposing one was allowed to board a train, what then of individuals who opted to eat a few raw bulbs of garlic? Would there be roving teams of inspectors inhaling deeply at regular intervals.
And let's not even start on the appeals process.
"Leave it to Rod Tam. While others worry about how the city's rail project will look or how loud it will sound, the Honolulu City Council is concerned about how it will smell....Under the measure introduced by Tam and Nestor Garcia, stinky riders on city public transportation could be ordered to get off the bus or train and issued a citation by police. If convicted of violating the "passenger code of conduct," which includes the ban on stinking, a person could be fined up to $500 and/or spend up to six months in jail, which may or may not improve their personal grooming".
I have not been able to track down much more about the legislations author, but if anyone else feels up to digging around on the Honolulu council web page, good luck - it is a real retina burner.
Anyway, all of us will have been downwind of the foul -smelling in confined spaces, but doubtless the niffy have not been told that they are offensive to the olfactory senses of others. As to enforcement, would folk have to pass through sniff-o-meters at train stations - and would this be prior or post ticket purchase? This has the makings of a great revenue spinner, in that if one bought a ticket and then got bounced at the barrier, who would want to queue in the queue of shame for a refund?
Always supposing one was allowed to board a train, what then of individuals who opted to eat a few raw bulbs of garlic? Would there be roving teams of inspectors inhaling deeply at regular intervals.
And let's not even start on the appeals process.
Labels: Common sense? What's that?, United States
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on Thursday, September 03, 2009 at 12:30 pm.
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