OFF THE WIRE
Seeing more and more news about this subject... spreading like a cancer all over the country and beyond! What bothers me, is that I don't see any mention of any other faction of noise polluters, such as my neighbors who party until the wee hours in their yard, drunk and obnoxious, trying to do Karaoke while smashed and I'm trying to sleep; or the kids with the boom boxes blaring!
The other day at work... true story, I had the door open because it was a nice day.... a kid pulled up to the corner to the light, and had the bass turned up so high, it shook my windows and made my chest reverberate! Unreal! What about the guy with the leaf blower or lawn mower at 6AM?
See... once a motorcyclists passes you, the noise is gone.... those other sounds, aren't so quick to leave~
Gypsy
http://www.brandonsun.com/opinion/blogs/Motorcyclists-should-quieten-down-96573709.html?thx=y
Motorcyclists should quieten down By: Grant Hamilton
17/06/2010 11:14 AM
Print E–mail Share ThisReport Error I can't believe that there's such a brouhaha about the possibility that motorcycles will have to abide by a noise standard.
When the news filtered out -- Edmonton's doing it, Winnipeg is looking at it, so Brandon might follow suit -- you'd think that motorcycle owners had been told they'd also have to get training wheels bolted on.
Motorcyclists in Edmonton will have to keep their bikes under 92 decibels or risk a fine. For comparison, 92 decibels is the same noise as New York's Times Square (the world's noisiest intersection) or a trail along the bottom of Niagara Falls (both measurements according to a story in Time magazine).
And this is the noise that riders are allowed to have while their bikes are just sitting there, idling.
Having grown up in a home along Victoria Avenue, I can tell you that motorcycles at idle are not the problem.
There may be plenty of quiet, well-tuned motorcycles that hum along city streets without making a nuisance of themselves.
But there are too many bikers who like to barrel along, full-throttle, leaving sonic pollution in their wake. Seriously, some of these bikes are so loud that you have to stop conversation in a backyard, behind a large house and several trees and bushes, while they go by.
Stopping conversation is bad enough. Imagine waking up to it at 3 a.m.
I get the love of loudness -- it sounds really bad-ass, it truly does. But it's too loud for other people. Keep it at the race track.
And I don't buy the argument that you need to be loud, or people in cars and trucks will run you over. Tell that to the people on mopeds. Or cyclists on their 10-speeds.
Get a muffler. Keep it tuned. And you won't annoy other people, nor get a fine.
For the record, yes, I think that other loud vehicles like trucks and cars should also be ticketed. And if we're talking about decibel level, it should be applied to too-loud stereos, too.
Cranky old man, me? Better than being deaf.
