Hey! A fellow Frankfurter! Admittedly, I don’t have a car here, but when I am on the autobahn/in the city riding with a friend, I rarely hear a horn. And being American, I’m always a bit surprised at how aggressive German drivers are. That said, I hate how slow and dim-witted American drivers are.

And this is a horrible idea. What’s to stop some bored government worker from listening in to conversations? I think it’s even a bigger invasion of privacy than speed cameras.

My home town, Frankfurt Germany: the police don’t give a damn, people honk their horns all the time, drivers are aggro.

Paris: honking is considered to be rude, the police are vigilant, traffic is surprisingly peaceful.

Tokyo: honking is considered to be rude, police are vigilant, and there is a lot of noise-reduction pavement on the streets. Very quiet, all things considered.

My point being: if you want a quieter town, police need to be on the case (walking!), and not just sitting in their cars. And city government has to take noise seriously.

Having said all that, I think noise cameras are a really bad idea. If you’re going to encroach upon civil liberties, then the justification should be that there is a serious and clear danger, and a lack of alternatives to address the danger. Clearly, there are better ways of preventing noise that are less big-brother statist.

Invade my home, the one place where I can TRY to escape the noisy world, with your obnoxious unnecessaty noise (unmuffled exhaust, uber-noisy mega-decible “music” etc.) that indicates to me the noise creator desires attention form others, then do not be surprised if I am forced to repress the desire, the wish, that I had a rocket-propelled grenade to permanently obliterate the noise source.

Sigh…. if only dreams could become real.

What is up with you guys ? Unable to hire real cops ?

I have news for you. Greed is contagious, and once you let one of these systems go, there’s no stopping them. Cf. Great Britain’s SPECS3 plan that leaves no A-Road on the island outside ticketing range.

While we are at it, can we get a camera to ticket for excessive bling? it is distracting and when the sun catches it wrong, it blinds me when I’m driving.

Thanks!

Was once traveling on the autostrada when my FM stereo began transmitting a ghostly voice overriding my music. I realized that it was the truck beside me – he prob had the Italian equivalent to a CB radio strong enough to converse clearly with the space shuttle in orbit. Maybe that is what I need – something to cause a screaming terror to break out in those boomer stereos causing the driver to turn it off or risk blowing the speakers.

Invest in hearing aids – the current generation is going to need them.

Am curious how easily the noise camera can be fooled. Does the ticket get a sound track recorded with it?

Ticketing is part of the solution, but so is effective urban planning–one would hope that the funds from this program would go into noise-mitigation public works.

Just cannot imagine driving a Harley with straight pipes for hours on end. Do they wear ear plugs?