//metrognome logo// I got into an elevator and there was a TV telling me about a new mouthwash. At the bus stop, there was an ad telling me I'd look better in leather jeans. And at the movies, there was a soft-drink commercial before a film that featured more product placements than plot twists. Afterwards, I hailed a cab, hoping for some peace in the darkened back seat, but there a TV screen there, too! And more ads! And no "off" switch! I had become another victim of "Taxi TV," a pilot program that is turning one of New York's last refuges into yet another chaotic marketplace. Soon, 1,000 cabs will have one of seven competing video systems. Five are pre-recorded garbage -- stale jokes, shopping guides that conveniently highlight paid advertisers, and vignettes about New York that are known by even recent transplants -- while two systems give you movie times and other useful information. But only one -- a good version called eTaxi -- does not feature ads. Its screen remains blissfully motionless unless you're foolish enough to touch it. Today, video screens are everywhere, flashing nonstop commercial imagery and turning our brains into hyperactive speed freaks that flit from one image to the next, unable to process what they see. "Without down time, our brains become overwhelmed," said David Shenk, author of "Data Smog," which identified this trend. "The constant bombardment of imagery is exciting, but it's candy. Our brain needs the broccoli of quiet contemplation, too." So do the eyes. Experts say you should never watch TV in a darkened room and certainly not from such a close distance. Ophthalmologists recommend a gap of at least five times the width of the screen. But there hasn't been five feet of room in a cab backseat since the Checker! Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus defended the pilot program (it's one way, after all, to replace those seatbelt recordings that everyone hates) as a new idea that deserves testing. "But," he said, "If the public doesn't find it useful, we won't do it." You heard him, New York. The back seat of a cab is your private sanctuary, no less vital a public space than Grand Central or Bryant Park -- both of which were saved by public outcry. So make your voice heard: Log onto http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc, fill out the taxi video questionnaire and tell the TLC where it can stick those TV screens. Unless, of course, your brain needs MORE ads. --30-- gersh.kuntzman@verizon.net