Monday, October 17, 2016

San Francisco Muni advertising destabilizing health of population

Have you seen lately the San Francisco Muni trains?
The cars with people are now a moving advertising board.
You may think this is a good economical solution, as Muni
gathers its funds from advertising, without burdening riders
with higher cost of tickets.

However, the Muni advertisings are painted on the cars windows,
blocking access to daylight, and this is a bad decision from Public
Health perspective, that destabilizes the health of San Franciscans.
Let me explain, contrary to the saying "You get what you pay for",
daylight is free to use (when available) and is found by research
that is the 100% healthy package. In other words, having access
to daylight makes you healthier!

All Muni lines have above ground rounds, before entering in the
tunnels guts at about Van Ness. The tunnels run underground
to the Financial district, and after Embarcadero the Muni trains
are back above ground. The rides above ground are crucial!

Riders headed to work who are receiving full exposure
to daylight through the Muni clean cars windows, receive
a boost in alertness that improves their work performance.
And there is more, the receiving of abundant daylight
in the morning hours, regulates the circadian system,
the hormones and endocrine functions in our bodies.
Exposure to daylight while riding the Muni trains,
is crucial in suppressing the sleep hormone melatonin
in the morning hours, which in turn results in timely
melatonin production in the evening hours, resulting
in good quality of night sleep.

In other words, access to daylight while riding Muni
above ground, is crucial for San Franciscans health.

And here it is, SFMTA Muni focusing on the creative
(they thought) acquiring of additional funds, covering
Muni cars windows with advertising, blocking daylight.
In this scheme, human health and human wellbeing
were forgotten and sacrificed.

SFMTA - we need to reverse the process right now, we
need clean cars windows, that stream daylight inside,
and we need to support public health. It is a good idea
to include health experts in every level of decisions,
to make sure that human health is protected in SF.