By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — Manhattanites are largely in favor of a bill that would require tourists to wear headphones on sight-seeing buses so that people on the street don't have to hear tour guides lecturing over the buses' blaring speaker systems.
The City Council's public hearing on the proposed law on Monday drew angry residents from tourist-heavy neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Hell's Kitchen who are fed up with the constant broadcast that comes from tour buses as they traverse the city streets.
"Its unbearable, it's right in your living room and you cannot function," said midtown resident Christine Berthet, who spoke at the hearing.
Berthet is the head of the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety and is a member of the West Side Neighborhood Alliance, a community advocacy group.
She said in her area "amphibian" tour buses, which can operate on both the road and water, drive down the street every ten minutes on their way to the Hudson River.
In other areas residents complain about tour buses operating late into the night, Berthet said.
Gray Line New York, one of the bigger tour operators in the city, advertises a night tour that operates daily, finishing at 9:30 p.m.
The bill, which is sponsored by Upper West Side City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, would demand that all buses that apply for a license this year be equipped with a headphone system beginning in April of 2012.
However, the bill would not require tour buses currently operating to swap their speakers for headphones until 2022.
For Berthet, the 12-year delay for buses already operating is an "absurd timeline."
She said buses should be required to conform to the law in "one to two years max."
The bill is expected to be brought to the full City Council on Wednesday, Brewer's office said.
