Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Transport operators combine for a user awareness campaign on keeping silent on public transport as an additional prevention measure against Covid-19. Besides the usual recommendations of washing your hands, fearing a face mask properly and not eating or drinking on public transport, which users comply with in the main, this specific initiative recommends travelling without speaking. Using the onomatopoeic “Sst” (Shh), the ATM initiative seeks to have a direct impact on user awareness, with silence among passengers generating much fewer aerosols and cutting the risk of infection further.

The “Sst” campaign is a joint initiative by public transport operators and administrations making up the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM), to recommend people make journeys on public transport without speaking.

Numerous scientific studies point to the risk of transmission of Covid-19 through aerosols, the tiny droplets which are expelled intensely from people’s mouths when they speak. Given these warnings, the ATM is applying this recommendation of silence to guarantee safety.

When you travel with somebody else or you get an incoming call on your phone, it’s easy to forget the recommendation of speaking between vehicles or facilities, a practice which has been promoted for months across the entire public transport network. Because of this, the “Sst” campaign has been created as an additional reminder inside vehicles.

The ATM also wants the initiative to remind people that along with the prevention measures in place and the collaboration of users, such as the obligation of wearing face masks and the ban on eating and drinking on public transport, the risk of infection is minimised during journeys.