Mind the Gap

For anyone who has visited London, the title immediately brings to mind that continual reminder that the London subway system was built many years ago and there are sometimes some very significant gaps between the platform and the train. An unwary traveler can easily step into that gap and find themselves embarrassed at a minimum or even seriously injured as they fall halfway to the tracks. While it is drummed into your sub-consciousness in your time spent in their "tubes", I don't recall ever hearing that message on a continuous loop. But here in a airport in Pittsburg, built at least a century after the earliest London line, I hear a comparable warning on a continuous loop to no effect except to annoy people waiting nearby. I find this a sadly common situation in American society and design and I would like to find a name for it.

An innovation in airports and other transportation centers is the addition of moving walkways. It is hard to believe that there is still an American citizen left who isn't familiar with them by now. Yet the walkway near my gate has speakers at the end of each walkway that plays the loop "Caution...moving walk is nearing its end. Please watch your step." with only a two second pause between repetitions. Now when someone is on the walkway near its end, it makes perfect sense. However this system has no sensor so the loop plays even though there are no walkers, and in fact have not been for more than 10 minutes. I can just imagine why this has come to be and it is that image that keeps me at a slow burn with each repetition.

A continual theme from the political right is the nanny state. While I disagree on where this came from,