I am responding to the latest attempt by Susanne Ho of KMB (South China Morning Post, January 14), to justify the bus company's cynical decision to sell the rights of its passengers to an undisturbed journey, to advertisers, for further commercial gain.
Ms Ho appears to think that, because KMB's surveys show that a majority like bus TV, it is perfectly acceptable to disturb the hundreds of thousands of others who do not, in order to exploit the captive-audience situation of all passengers.
If Ms Ho is so convinced that the majority are so enamoured of the RoadShow 'infotainment' and if, as she states, KMB is committed to providing the travelling public with a pleasant journey, then the company should have no problem giving its passengers freedom to choose whether or not they wish to be subjected to bus TV noise.
The technology is available to enable wireless communication, so that the bus TV audio can be received on passengers' own headphones. All that is required is the will on the part of KMB, together with some of the vast profits made from the exploitation of its captive audience by RoadShow ($175 million last year) to fund such a system.
In the meantime, it is totally unacceptable in an advanced and free society to continue to force this noise pollution on all bus passengers, particularly so for a company which prides itself on being socially responsible.
JILL TAYLOR