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Amsterdam to use “noise cameras” against too loud cars
- marginalia_nu 3y agoNuisance drivers have become a real problem over here. Idiots driving around with no muffler at 4 AM blasting music so the windows nearly fall out of their sockets.
- SoftTalker 3y agoCan we do leaf blowers too? Can we do people who start cutting their lawn with a Dixie Chopper at 7pm on a Sunday evening? These things annoy me a lot more than a momentary noisy car passing.
- dangus 3y agoCities aren’t loud. Cars are loud. Especially the ones that are modified or designed to be loud. Given the newest research regarding excessive noise’s impact on human, I wish more countries put some kind of effort into reducing noise on roads like the Netherlands does (this isn’t the only thing they do).
- 317070 3y agoI was reading your message, why an airplane was flying overhead. There is more than just cars that make noise, but at least we have all the tools and technology to make cars in cities almost completely quiet.
- ben_w 3y agoIndeed. The airport this plane was approaching was converted into an asylum processing centre for Ukrainians, the replacement is just outside the city limits: https://youtu.be/OIu-dDKCBoI https://youtu.be/OIu-dDKCBoI It was, naturally, much louder IRL than it seems in this clip.
- Steltek 3y ago> make cars in cities almost completely quiet. Yes, by getting rid of them. A well designed city doesn't need private automobiles.
- sokoloff 3y agoDo you have an existing city in mind as a model?
- booleandilemma 3y agoI've lived in nyc for close to 20 years and never needed own a car. Between the subway, buses, and taxis (and uber, etc. nowadays) there is no reason to own a car unless you're using it to drive others around.
- dangus 3y agohttps://youtu.be/R2oD1ZHNMFE https://youtu.be/R2oD1ZHNMFE https://youtu.be/ZQkz-mDmURs https://youtu.be/ZQkz-mDmURs Massive car reductions: https://youtu.be/ZORzsubQA_M https://youtu.be/ZORzsubQA_M https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/forward-thinking-utrecht-builds-car-free-district-for-12000-people https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/forward-thinki...
- aa1234556 3y ago[dead]
- Moldoteck 3y agoIt does need them, just not on every corner and just as last resort after foot, public transport, bikes and rentals, but car's shouldn't be banned, just regulated
- csydas 3y agoI'm not sure how common it is over Europe, but at least in Prague and in Amsterdam, there are very active campaigns regarding respectful noise levels in the major city areas, which most people seem to be pretty okay with. I still see huge groups drinking and smoking outside every night at the pubs near where I live, but I can't say I've ever needed to complain about their noise levels, so people definitely seem on board with it; I can't say I've ever seen/heard persons getting into a heated discussion over noise, but naturally this is just my limited point of view and reality may differ. Edit: also, just remembered that I even saw a more active approach to this when I lived in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where a few bars even had a "noise meter" outside the bar (just a simple dim but legible LED screen with the purported noise level and a sign explaining that if the number is > N, you're being too loud). It seemed to work pretty well.
- ysavir 3y agoPeople are loud. If you live in a city where people walk around, you'll hear every conversation from your street-facing windows. Cars are more obnoxious for sure, but they're hardly the exclusive problem contributing to noise.
- soderfoo 3y agoStockholm is creepily quiet sometimes. I say this as a New Yorker who needs some kind of background ruckus to sleep.
- momirlan 3y agostayed for a week in Barcelona. there was this little park in front of the hotel where some chirpy homeless people spent the whole night talking. not overly annoying as it was a constant noise.
- andsoitis 3y agoDelivery trucks are even louder than cars. The difference is acute in a place like Manhattan.
- masklinn 3y agoThere is not a constant stream of delivery trucks under most people's windows. Furthermore it's likely easier to bring the hammer on delivery trucks if and when they become the primary issue, as those tend to have registration and responsible companies.
- rascul 3y agoIn my experience, delivery trucks with very loud aftermarket exhaust aren't drag racing in residential areas at 2AM like cars do. I moved out of the city a few years ago though so maybe they do now.
- not-my-account 3y agoI am in Amsterdam right now. Two things you notice quick when you are where Dutch people actually live (i.e. outside of Centraal): first, that it is remarkably quiet, and second, that cars are remarkably loud. The loudest vehicles are the mopeds, though. It's almost like they don't have mufflers. I wonder if they are regulated differently?
- ChatGTP 3y agoI did a brief stint in Hoogte Kadijk one summer a few years back , seriously I actually developed severe depression which I think was from lack of sleep due to the unusual heat , the mopeds going past and the Airbnb guests checking into our old building at all hours making so much noise. I couldn’t wait to leave, which was sad because the winter and autumn was absolutely bliss. We had a great life there. The mopeds were astoundingly loud though, I’ll never forget it, I had PTSD, I could hear them coming from a ways off and it would make my blood boil before they went past and fuel my insomnia. What is funny is the mopeds are still plaguing me in a different part of the world now :) they should be banned altogether, they suck.
- wernerb 3y agoCompletely agree, ban them altogether and mandate electric mopeds instead. Even better, tax them and subsidize the models.
- paulette449 3y agoFirst line of the article: "Amsterdam has started the fight against noisy motorcycles and cars."
- prmoustache 3y agoMy maxi scooter has its OEM mufflers and it isn't too noisy. Problem is many people mount noisy aftermarket ones. They mount back the original one when they have the scheduled inspection. Having said that, outside of the amount of decibels there are engines that are more annoying. 2-strokes high pitch screamers and single and bi-cylinder with lots of low frequency / bass noise. And there are models that are probably made to pass homologation but do higher noise outside of the rev range used during homologation/inspection. The Yamaha T-Max is one example. It should be prohibited and all its drivers euthanasied. I am obviously joking for the second part but I have never encountered a decent human being riding one, they only attracts the worse of humanity. Yamaha should be ashamed of that.
- Jcampuzano2 3y agoI wish they'd bring this to near me. I'm especially interested because I'm a motorcyclist. Seems 90% of riders get angry when an exhaust isn't loud as a jet and it's often one of the first mods people make. I couldn't care less and prefer not to annoy everyone in a 100 yard radius from me. Unlike what most riders will say loud pipes don't really save lives, good and safe riding does. They just use this excuse for the mistakes they make most of the time.
- candiodari 3y agoThe reason exhausts are loud is that there is detonation happening inside the exhaust. This happens when you increase the fuel-air mixture above what the cylinders will support for combustion and often gives slightly (maybe 10%) better performance of the car, for the cost of much lower lifetime of many components (not just the cylinders), and of course making enough noise to wake the dead. There's plenty of motorcyclists who do the same though.
- chaosite 3y agoSome people optimize for the noise, and not performance, for the same reason people stick racing decals and put a spoiler on a car that doesn't really need it. Heck, some people will literally drill a hole in the exhaust to get that noise, for absolutely no performance benefit whatsoever.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoEven though what you describe has, for some reason, become much more common lately, many exhausts are just loud for no good reason. Think Harleys or even the Yamaha TMax with the Akrapovic exhaust. They don't have the "pop-pop-pop" sound related to detonations, but are still absurdly loud. > There's plenty of motorcyclists who do the same though. What's funny is that in my neck of the woods, it's motorcycles with bad aftermarket pipes that had been making that noise for a long time. So now, whenever I hear a car making that noise, instead of associating it with some "big mean engine" as their owners probably hope, I associate it with some overworked 600cc.
- rascul 3y agoIn the US there are often noise ordinances and laws that largely go unenforced. Step 1 is enforcing existing laws.
- kitten_mittens_ 3y agoIn places like Massachusetts, traffic cameras are illegal, which is unfortunate.
- rascul 3y agoThey are also illegal here in Mississippi. We don't need to start with cameras though, police are quite capable of ticketing loud vehicles. They just don't.
- kitten_mittens_ 3y agoIt’s much more difficult to do traffic enforcement by sweat and blood in Boston where narrow roads are more common. Bots for traffic enforcement would free cops up to deal with less rote work too.
- frankus 3y agoStep 0 in the US might be enforcing laws against fake temporary tags or concealed license plates. If I had a dollar for every “thin blue line” sticker-sporting car with a barely-transparent bit of plastic over the license plate… Seems like the illegal covers would be straightforward to enforce any time these cars are parked on public streets.
- baz00 3y agoNeed them here in the UK. There are so many cars modified to have explosive sounding exhausts it's unreal. I get woken up regularly in the night when they drive them around at 2AM making a lot of noise. I still don't get why anyone would want to drive around sounding like that. There is no reason other than you want to look like a complete wanker and at that point society should crush your car to a fucking cube instantly. Edit: turns out we do have them and they have been fining people. But it's mostly supercars. The problem is with shitty little cars with stupid exhausts which outnumber the supercars by at least two orders of magnitude.
- tailspin2019 3y agoSame here where I am in the UK. It seems to be getting worse over time too.
- noodlesUK 3y agoIt’s actually ridiculous the level of noise some people drive around making. People buy “pop and bang” ECU tunes that when combined with a aftermarket exhaust make their car sound like a howitzer. I live on a main road, and there are some cars driving around at night that I can hear half a mile away or more. The cops or council should seize the cars and the owners should have to pay to have the mods undone before they can get them returned. The other thing I don’t understand is how in the UK these people are passing MOTs. Either they are colluding with a garage to get fake passes, or they are on fake plates, or they’re undoing the mod every year when they need to go get an MOT.
- baz00 3y agoDon't force them to fix them. Just crush them with zero warning. Word gets around quickly. I'm in favour of banning all modifications to vehicles as well. Seen several cars with turned in wheels and appendages which are clearly affecting traction and aerodynamics.
- gumballindie 3y ago
- fsh 3y agoThis is great. Noise pollution really is a massive blind spot in vehicle regulations. Even combustion-powered cars can be made pretty quiet, but morons associate "loud" with "fast", so manufacturers keep installing defeat devices in the mufflers. Motorcycles are even worse. The noise measurements are apparently made under completely unrealistic operating conditions, and on the road they are many times louder than most cars.
- Eavolution 3y agoMy 1200 petrol car is so quiet you can't actually hear the engine from within the car, and there's no sound damping under the bonnet (no top engine cover, no padding on the bonnet itself despite the mounting there for it), so petrol cars can absolutely be quiet. I think the thing with motorbikes is everything is so much more exposed, and they rev higher in general, so the sound thing is probably a harder problem. I am actually of the belief that motorbikes and scooters should be encouraged in cities, because they are a lot smaller, and more efficient in general than cars (so long as you don't have a massive bike), and take up a lot less space when parking. Do most people really need a 1.5 tonne car to go to work as opposed to a 200kg bike?
- vladvasiliu 3y ago> I think the thing with motorbikes is everything is so much more exposed, and they rev higher in general, so the sound thing is probably a harder problem. Meh. Some have figured a way to make them quiet. Most "touring" bikes are very reasonable. I'm thinking BMW K16s, Honda Goldwings, Yamaha FJRs. With stock pipes, of course. Hell, even my VFR1200 is very quiet with the stock pipe, which closes a flap below 5000 RPM. When idling at a traffic light, if there's a car around, I can't hear the bike.
- WelcomeShorty 3y agoFellow VFR1200 driver here. You inspired me to exchange my Akrapovič (came with the bike when I bought it) to the stock pipe (which also came with the bike).
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- buggythebug 3y agoLol I never saw cars when I went - everyone was on a bike!
- dealuromanet 3y ago[flagged]
- inglor 3y agoHow is enforcing the law to not make loud noises that make everyone else's life around you worse a bad thing? What justifies someone suffering from PTSD, with a sleeping baby in their home or just enjoying life being put through noise pollution just because someone wants to make loud noises?
- dealuromanet 3y agoPolice officers can pull those people over and issue citations for vehicles that are too loud. You could create similar justifications for using these systems for monitoring Wrongspeak in the same way by citing PTSD, the children, or people who just want to enjoy life without being put through thought pollution when someone's thoughts are contradicting the Cabinet's thoughts. It's better to not have this technology deployed in the first place. It's very easy to have an officer pull someone over if their vehicle is too loud, issue a hefty citation in place, and then let word get around that you will get pulled over for exceeding the local decibel limit for your vehicle.
- mycologos 3y agoI'm not sure that adding a layer of human discretion into this is going to make it more palatable to the affected people. For something like traffic stops, being able to make a convincing argument that you're not picking and choosing who to cite for prejudiced reasons is probably useful. Whether that's a good equilibrium, I'm less sure, but I get why a government might pursue it.
- dealuromanet 3y ago[flagged]
- ethanbond 3y ago
- inglor 3y agoAmazing, it's so great to see this done and I wish sound pollution was taken nearly as seriously where I live. Another cool thing is when I visited Japan and I learned a lot of the tools and drills used in renovations have more quiet/less noisy counterparts so when someone remodels a room in an apartment building or house next door it doesn't actually have to ruin your work-from-home day.
- throw0101a 3y ago"Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud": * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- drukenemo 3y agoI kind of like his ideas (I know the channel), but he’s heavily biased against cars. He’s the “everything could be done on a bike” type of guy. The reality is, cities are incredibly noisy due to cars, but also construction work, people shouting, loud music and much more.
- glial 3y agoYeah but mostly due to cars.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jodrellblank 3y ago> “He’s the “everything could be done on a bike” type of guy.” No? He drives cars, uses multiple car rental/car shares schemes, often says that it’s not cars he dislikes it’s urban design which leads to car dependency - unsafe for anyone outside a car, no provision for anything other than driving, single family housing zoning leading to everything being too spread out to go anywhere without a car - and that he’s not a ‘cyclist’ and would prefer taking a tram when possible. The channel is even called “not just bikes” to push back against your kind of mischaracterisation.
- robswc 3y agoDon't forget the trash trucks setting down dumpsters. Not that I blame them, no other way really but gave me a heart attack every time.
- Aaargh20318 3y ago
- louwrentius 3y agoWe need them badly in Haarlem (close to Amsterdam) as well. You have to pause conversations because of the car and bike noise. I hate that noise pollution in general isn’t a higher priority as it really impact people’s lives. But the biggest issue is motor bikes, not the cars. It’s as if bikers are truly anti-social scum, and I’m saying this as a former biker.
- Luc 3y agoThis summer I was bicycling for a while behind two (combustion engine) BMW touring motorbikes, and they were so quiet I think my clunker bicycle may have been the noisier of the three. I thought about thanking the riders, it really makes a big difference in the city.
- CommanderData 3y agoHow does the camera distinguish and localise a noisy car amoung 20-30 normal cars. Even with directional microphones automated fines may be indiscriminately issued for potentially just being near one or behind one. This system needs to be close to perfect so to not distract innocent drivers with the idea of a rogue fine, in turn cause a driver to stress and elevate road risk.
- SoftTalker 3y agoIt's the Japanese car with a wing on the back and a big chrome exhaust tip.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- almostnormal 3y agoNot going to work well in practice, as long as these are installed in known fixed locations. It will catch only those that are a bit noisy at all times. The worst offenders can switch the behavior of their exhaust, and they will pass the checks in whisper-mode, with less noise than most normal cars.
- j-a-a-p 3y agoI think it is the opposite, it will be very effective. But how to prove it works will be difficult as the goal is not safety, something easy to measure, but annoyance.
- xnx 3y agoAlong with red light cameras, this is another form of automated enforcement I'm very much in favor of.
- Zigurd 3y agoI would like to be in favor of automated enforcement, but cops and enforcement-tech companies have been caught shortening yellow lights to increase revenue while literally killing more people in the process.
- 4b11b4 3y agoPlease in the US.
- osclarto 3y agoThis is such a great initiative. I lived on a busy crossroad for a few years. I went from thinking motorbikes were pretty cool to having a passionate disdain for the sad little selfish men that ride insanely loud bikes around the city. the constant noise from motorbikes was so so bad. bikes in the countryside are probably just about ok but in the city it's just selfish and embarassing
- jehb 3y agoI live on a busy road, not too far from the intersection with another road that has a quarry on it. The worst thing of living here are the dump trucks who come speeding around the corner and then use their unmuffled engine brakes to slow down to zero to make a turn onto the road with the quarry. Sure, we've got the kind of assholes who mod their trucks and motorcycles to be as loud as possible, too, but nothing can compete with the low frequency vibration of those engine brakes. When I'm in my basement, I can barely hear the road noise at all, but I can feel the truck engine brakes.
- NoLinkToMe 3y agoI honestly rarely experience cars that are unreasonably loud in Amsterdam, they’re all roughly as loud, which bugs me but I’m used to it my whole life (and they got quieter over time). But scooters and motorcycles? They frequently stand out as being much louder than anything, it’s jolting and creates an immediate annoyance that lasts until it’s out of hearing range. I’m very optimistic as I expect these to be electrified relatively quickly. Not heavy motorcycles per se but they’re pretty rare. Gasolike scooters were everywhere though but they’re disappearing quick, in part due to helmet/roaduse rules in Amsterdam, in part due to electric scooters and bikes.
- rectang 3y agoCould we use US state ballot initiatives to require the installation of informational noise cameras, similar to informational speed cameras that have become prevalent in recent years? I suspect any such votes would pass by overwhelming margins.
- HPsquared 3y agoThat's great. They need to make "smell cameras" too to catch people who remove their catalytic converters and DPFs. In my experience a LOT of taxis seem to have their emissions systems disabled.
- l72 3y agoThis sounds great and all, but…. I live in an urban residential neighborhood and have a major hospital at the end of our block. Our street is a pretty big cut through street. Yeah loud engines and music (and phone calls!) from cars is annoying, but that’s not where most of the sound comes from. It is just tires on the asphalt that is so loud. I don’t know if this is due to how heavy American cars have gotten or changing roads from concrete to asphalt, but it has become quite unbearable. The rise of e-bikes and personal mobility scooters has helped cut down on the noise somewhat, but I don’t know what you do about regular car noise (other than banning cars). Also, whatever vehicle designer that decided the horn should honk whenever the car locks — you are on the top of my list!
- ipqk 3y ago> Also, whatever vehicle designer that decided the horn should honk whenever the car locks — you are on the top of my list! This should be illegal. I sort of get it 30 years ago when aftermarket & OEM car alarms were a new thing, but that's it's still acceptable in 2023 is asinine. No artificial sound should be allowed when locking or unlocking a car. Maybe flashing the headlights at most.
- cactusplant7374 3y ago> Also, whatever vehicle designer that decided the horn should honk whenever the car locks — you are on the top of my list! I recommend never visiting Ecuador. Car alarms (false alarms), lock, and unlock sounds are an all day thing. If you think America is bad you ain’t seen nothing yet.
- joeframbach 3y agoRe: lock horn My last sedan would beep when you hit the lock button twice, which was great because I could lock it without being annoying but I could also use a beacon to find it in a parking lot. Now, my new RAV4 makes the tiniest little blip no matter how you lock it, it's only audible from a few feet away, so I can never find it in a parking lot.
- konart 3y agoHad thouse in Moscow since 2021 in test mode. Soon they will start to fine you for loud exhaust.
- mistercheph 3y agoThere is no way western societies will ever regret enabling the technological and legal frameworks for automated crime enforcement
- theanonymousone 3y agoHow is that camera supposed to recognise the exact vehicle that has created the loud noise?
- bob1029 3y agoStatistics. Your plate gets detected once, no big deal. Detected 100 times? You are in trouble now.
- jabradoodle 3y agoFrom a quick search this seems to be wrong, it appears they can detect which car the sound came from.
- franga2000 3y agoI've been trying to find out how much these cost so I could do the math and pitch it to my city council (they only care about money these days), but not a single manufacturer has pricing and none of the 4 that I emailed have replied in a month. I live right next to a very high-traffic road, but I got used to the noise. What I can never get used to is the dozens of idiots on motorcycles and modded cars with removed mufflers that drive by in the dead of night at twice the speed limit.
- JorgeGT 3y agoResearch-grade acoustic cameras from the leading providers cost anywhere from 50k-150k€. But they have much more than the "four microphones" the article cites, so I don't know which kind of solution they are implementing.
- r0fl 3y agoThis YouTube video describes people who drive loud cars perfectly https://youtu.be/hEG6knXQxNg https://youtu.be/hEG6knXQxNg It’s such an obnoxious thing; almost as bad as people who yell on speakerphone when in small public spaces
- fnord77 3y agowouldn't work in SF because SFPD has announced they're no longer pulling over people for "minor" violations, like not having license plates
- ryandrake 3y agoThis is why I kind of like the idea of so-called "Active Sound Design"[1]--where car makers are starting to play vroom-vroom noises over the internal speaker system to make their engines sound louder. Car enthusiasts criticize it as "fake engine noise" but it's actually brilliant: The only person who really cares that someone's car is loud and obnoxious is that car's driver, so let him blast himself with vroom-vroom and let everyone else enjoy a slightly quieter existence. 1: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15117726/faking-it-engine-sound-enhancement-explained-tech-dept/ https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15117726/faking-it-en...
- trgn 3y agoNever looked at it like that. My gut reaction when hearing about this first was a huge eye roll, ugh these babies, but now after you said that, hmmm, if it makes the car on the outside quiet...
- seventytwo 3y agoNeed them at my location. It’s so fucking rude.
- debarshri 3y agoI would like to mention Timo Gatsonides here. He was CEO and CTO at SensysGatso BV. They build popular speed cameras. When I was an employee there, he was building these noise cameras along with emission capture etc. I am not affiliated with them anymore, was they were implementing some really good strategies in netherlands. Not sure if this implementation is by them, there is lot more you can do when it comes to traffic enforcement. PS. Most of the Trajectcontrole in netherlands are implemented by them
- nimbius 3y agoI know this isnt a popular take but as a diesel engine mechanic, i think Amsterdam is going to be surprised at just how many "clean idle" diesel and modern trucks they are going to catch simply due to the nature of the regulation. the regulatory ban on dirty trucks is a good thing, but most manufacturers implemented their fixes in the most ham-fisted and half-hearted way they could think of at the expense of noise emissions. take Vortec for example, a technology that creates a little mini "tornado" or air in the intake box to boost performance and improve emissions. at the hood or 'bonnet' of the truck during accelleration this thing can peak around 100db. Volvo tries to solve this with foam insulation for the intake area but that never lasts more than a few hundred thousand miles. Ive seen vortec trucks set off car alarms. then theres the desperate attempt to keep unmaintained trucks on roads. If trucks dont get service regularly for urea tanks and other emission control devices, theyre supposed to go into 'limp' mode. 30kph, no faster, until service is made. well truck companies got around this by instituting 'regenerative' mode. if you walk past a very loud truck (and i mean freight train loud) idling in the street during a delivery, chances are good its past its service interval and has entered regen mode. idle engine speed is ramped up from 750 RPM to nearly 3500 in an attempt to generate temperatures hot enough to combust waste gasses instead of clean them on exit (frankly it doesnt really work.) its hard on the entire engine and environmental system but hey, truck still gets to do its job for the week.
- swores 3y agoI don't see anything in your comment that suggests a problem with their plan if the goal is to prevent vehicles from being too loud.... sure there may be some vehicles that are too loud because of good intentions on the emissions side, but that doesn't change the fact that they're too loud?
- zdragnar 3y ago> i think Amsterdam is going to be surprised at just how many "clean idle" diesel and modern trucks they are going to catch simply due to the nature of the regulation To me, this didn't read as a problem with the plan so much as an observation that they're going to be catching a broader profile of problem vehicles than they anticipated. All in all, probably a good thing, but (as a foreigner who hasn't been there) it was, for me, an interesting observation.
- blondie9x 3y agoFinally. Loud cars are one of the biggest "silent" contributors to health risks and climate change. Loud vehicles are tightly coupled with excess speed and acceleration as well. People want to "show off" their rides. Sacrificing the health of those that surround them while they make as much noise as possible. Think about it. Windows open you suddenly get jolted out of bed when a car flies by that has been modified to produce more noise to boost someone's ego. Moreover the excess tire exhaust and vehicle exhaust from rapid acceleration causes respiratory issues. About climate change? Of course this causes more climate change. People are forced to close their windows and use conditioned air because of the noise outside. So many summer nights people can't open their windows near streets because of the noise modified vehicles cause. The same noise and pollution issues apply when you're driving next to them as well. You have to close your windows in case your kids are sleeping or you are trying to listen to something then one of these noise attention seekers comes by who thinks they are awesome and wants you to pay attention to them. Their car is loud, and he or she needs that attention. It's ridiculous. Its a waste of taxpayers money due to elevated health risks and its a waste of energy because people are forced to close their windows while driving or at home.
- filereaper 3y agoI wish there were regulations around those blinding Xenon lights as well. They're blinding from both front and back :(
- t0mas88 3y agoThere are regulations for those, at least in Europe a cleaning and automatic leveling system is mandatory. Which avoids scattered light and ensures they're pointed downwards. The most annoying lights around here are all on Tesla's or very old cars. Tesla because (at least on the model 3) they allow owners to change the leveling height in the settings and people raise it for more light. Plus a lack of quality control on the early model 3's seems to put their two headlights often at different angles with one being blinding. Old cars because they're kept to the regulations of the construction year not the new ones. So they don't have mandatory leveling and/or people have put aftermarket xenon lights on them.
- nologic01 3y agoAmsterdam is definitely at the forefront of inventing a liveable city. It is already more walkeable / bikeable that the vast majority of cities but it does not rest on its laurels. But have people thought about the implications of planting always-on microphones all around the city (connected to the always-on cameras)?
- t0mas88 3y agoAmsterdam is one of the least livable cities of the Netherlands. Everywhere else is just as easy if not better to bike and walk, but not nearly as traffic-jammed or as full of tourists.
- nologic01 3y agoDespite all efforts tourists are confined to the inner city. Traffic jams are mild compared to typical large city patterns and they affect you only if you use a car - which you dont really need in the city. The liveability comparison that makes sense is with cities offering similar economic and cultural opportunities. Compared to major world cities Amsterdam is already somewhat of a backwater but outside it it gets positively boucolic. The efficient frontier is when you optimally combine liveability with vibrancy.
- tzs 3y agoOT: It's not actually a "noise camera". It's a speed camera with some directional microphones that triggers if there is too much noise, probably with some filtering to try to avoid triggering on noise that isn't loud car noise. There are actually acoustic cameras that are much more like a "camera" in that you get a 2D map of the sound reaching the device. This can be overlaid on an image from a light camera and you get an image where you can see where all the sounds are coming from. Some of them can make acoustic movies, where each frame is a light camera image overlaid with the sound map, usually coloring the optical image based on the sound with color indicating frequency and brightness indicating loudness. With these you can do neat things like make a sharp sound and see the echo bounce around a room, or look at something making a variety of sounds and see which sounds are coming from where. They often include software that is kind of an audio image version of Photoshop. You can use that software's equivalent of the eye dropper tool to point anywhere in the image and here the sound coming from that point. E.g., if you had an acoustic movie of the strings of piano and the pianist was playing a 10 note chord you could pick an individual string and play back the sound of just that string. Here's a video where science YouTuber Steve Mould was loaned some to play around with, showing some of the cool things you can do with them [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtMTvsi-4Hw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtMTvsi-4Hw
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- johnwalkr 3y agoIt's a minor nit-pick either way but a speed camera doesn't make an image of the speed nor usually use images to calculate speed. It usually measures the speed using radar, laser or wire loops and then captures an image. So I think the term "noise camera" makes sense in this context.
- justin66 3y agoIn other words, it's exactly what someone reading the phrase "noise camera against too loud cars" would imagine it is.
- iancmceachern 3y agoWe need these in SF
- geonnave 3y agoSimilar "noise radar systems are being tested in Paris [1] and New York [2]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/15/noise-radar-in-paris-will-catch-raucous-cars-and-motorbikes https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/15/noise-radar-in... [2] https://www.nyc.gov/site/dep/news/22-005/roadside-sound-meter-camera-is-activated-loud-mufflers-now-sending-notices-vehicle https://www.nyc.gov/site/dep/news/22-005/roadside-sound-mete...
- PopePompus 3y agoGod bless Amsterdam for doing this. I had to move because of the noise produced by cars and motorcycles in the city where I lived. The vehicles were intentionally made noisier with "aftermarket exhaust systems". The people who intentionally make cities noisier are the lowest possible scum. Their vehicles should be confiscated and sold at auction, with none of the proceeds returning to the former owner.
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- pharmakom 3y agoCan we make car horns louder for the occupant too? using a horn should be a rare thing, in order to make someone aware of your presence, not as a stress relief toy.
- junga 3y agoYes, please. The horn should be as load from inside the car as it's from the outside.
- rdschouw 3y agoHere in the US Mid West suburbia it is a problem as well. Same applies to insane subwoofers. What's up with that? I always say to my wife that I can't wait until all cars and bikes are electric. In a decade or so this problem will go away by itself.
- johnwalkr 3y agoArticles like these always bring out suburbanites who point out that cities are loud and you need to deal with it if your are in the city. But most city noise is vehicles and it's quite amazing when you get a chance to realize this (for example when a normally busy street is made pedestrian-only for a weekend). And sometimes you don't realize how life-alteringly noisy a particular street is until you move there. I have 2 examples. Near Cambie street bridge in Vancouver can be extremely loud at night. Normal traffic noise during the day. But there's a traffic light followed by a bridge which is slightly uphill, which I guess is an invitation for people in loud cars to burn out when the light turns green in the middle of the night. In Tokyo I lived on a very-quiet looking side street, it was nearby a Domino's and parallel to another small street, just large enough to have a traffic light. So my short street had a loud scooter accelerating into and out of it every few minutes to bypass the traffic light. These sorts of things aren't noticeable when you just visit a city but are absolute hell if you end up living nearby. The first example at least would be a good candidate for a noise camera.
- thinkingemote 3y agoI'm looking forward to the day when they stop adding loudspeakers to electric vehicle to make them noisy. I recently heard an electric sports car with a loudspeaker playing a mock sports car "vroom" ... it was a bit sad.
- r0fl 3y agoThere are regulations that add sound to electric cars so blind people can hear them
- thinkingemote 3y agoYes I know why they are there like the red flags on front of the first automobiles and I wonder when they will disappear. They shouldn't go now, obviously! Additionally it's weird they pretend to be combustion engines. Why not play something unique? Will our future streets be filled with electric vehicles with the same shape pretending to carry bulky ICE engines in the front and making the sound of an extinct machine? What an odd future.
- torgian 3y agoI think they’re missing the point of noisy cars / motorcycles. Sure, there are the minority who have noisy vehicles. But the real culprit are the tires. Tell me, when you walk by a highway or a road, what do you hear? That sound that is vaguely like an ocean lapping against the shores, just louder and artificial and annoying right? You never really hear the engine, even at a short distance away. The tires make a LOT more noise than the engines and exhaust do! And it carries farther than an engine does. Tired need more regulation, and roads need to be built with quieter materials.
- wrs 3y agoThis is very timely as some jerk has just got himself a very loud motorcycle and decided it would be fun to ride it through our neighborhood day and night. I mean night, like after 11pm. And this is Seattle, where we leave our windows open at night because nobody has air conditioning. He is single-handedly interrupting the sleep of at least a thousand people every night. Because this thoughtless dweeb actually seems to stick to a schedule, I’ve managed to capture his license plate, but I am considering building and deploying a personal “noise camera” to deliver a mountain of evidence to the police and see if they’ll take action. From this thread it sounds like that might be a popular open hardware project!
- momirlan 3y agoit's a world wide issue, and it seems to have started with the covid lockdowns (at least in Canada). would be interested to understand what is the motivation for these anti-social people, and is there anything other than police that could stop it.
- ctenb 3y agoWhat makes you think it started with COVID?
- kouru225 3y agoMicrophones. The word you’re looking for is “microphones.”
- CalRobert 3y agoWould love for them to deal with the hordes of Dodge Rams too. How did a giant American truck get so popular here????
- bob1029 3y agoIt is a very comfortable vehicle to drive. The physical reality is that more inertia = smoother ride. I absolutely agree though. American trucks should stay 100% in America. They barely fit in Texas-sized streets and parking lots... I cannot comprehend what it must be like to own one outside the US.
- dontlaugh 3y agoThere are plenty of small cars with very comfortable suspension, though.
- INTPenis 3y agoI've seen this used at hacker camps, where they mount noise level detectors in trees to ensure that certain party areas don't exceed their noise levels and disturb the quiet family areas.
- jacquesm 3y agoVery loud vehicles in our neighborhood make me have revenge fantasies of ack-ack guns mounted to the roof of my house. But I'm too peaceful a person to do anything about it. Extremely annoying though and if I ever buy another house I will make sure to do better research about the noise levels.
- kunley 3y agoWhat about too loud and too annoying drug dealers?
- raylad 3y agoNoise cameras that take pictures and send tickets, like red light cameras, are what we need. And we need them for motorcycles too.
- ternaus 3y agoLove to see noise cameras all over the world. Even more, similar to air pollution maps, it would be great to have noise pollution map, at least over cities.
- verulito 3y agoI have a rare disorder called hyperacusis from a noise trauma, which causes pain from everyday sounds. While I'm thankfully not sensitive to these kinds of sounds, most are and it's quite dangerous to us. This disease is repetitive stress injury, in that every time you experience pain it lasts for weeks or years even and your sound tolerance goes down. So it is imperative that we never have accidents like those that cars like these can produce. It can get so bad that you can't tolerate even simple things like the sound of sheets. The other patient in my city is confined to a closet 24/7 with earplugs and earmuffs because his tolerance is so low. He continues to worsen because sounds like these penetrate buildings well. It is nearly unstudied so there's little hope of getting out of this hole. The least society can do for us is protect us from these assholes so we can hide in closets in peace.
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- jared099 3y agoI created an account only to comment because holy fk... The amount of "female males" in the comment section is unbelievable, no one likes a good V12 V8 V6? No? Soy milk and Tesla anyone? Actually it's quite funny. None of you provide actionable insight but rather Karen-omics arguments. "Car loud must not go brrr" "Only our money printers go brrr not your car!" "If its not silent as a Tesla as the media tells me I have to go rage mode on guys enjoying/reliving their youth!" Yeah we get it. Most of us have lived in big cities. There are already solutions as pointed out by other commentators whether preventative or active measures to deter a lot of too loud car drivers. We praise pseudo-individualism yet you get judged even if you'd buy a car with louder exhausts not modify one. The prejudice is real and just because you can't afford it that doesn't mean someone else shouldn't have or enjoy it RESPONSIBLY. You don't like racism yet you are racist towards people who enjoy cars. But then again can't be a pseudo intellectual/a ycombinator Karen like 90% of people here if you don't hate digital currencies and oppose anything different than whats shown on TV. -George FYI I travel by public transport.
- 3cats-in-a-coat 3y agoCurrently it’s illegal for a car to be too quiet, or too loud. There is a Goldilocks range, increasingly specific, about how loud a car should be. The aliens are laughing at us.