The Sound Of Silence - Noise cameras to pop up on our streets?
Government initiative to banish loud engine and exhaust noise using listening ears on the noisiest street corners...
Quiet as a mouse!
New hi-tech acoustic noise cameras are going to be trialled by the
Department for Transport DfT in four areas across the UK to target the noisiest road users. The idea being that, once the evidence has been acquired by judiciously placed noise 'cameras', then the police will be able to take action to crack down on the loudest riders and drivers.
The initiative is going to be tried out in specific areas England and Wales, with the aim of identifying riders and drivers who are over revving their engines or have illegally loud exhausts.
MPs are being asked to apply to trial the new tech in their areas to help keep their constituencies quiet.
The new sensors can detect and record when vehicles are illegally loud, thus providing the evidence needed for the police to issue fines to the drivers and riders concerned. So far, despite the laws being in place to punish people, it has been almost impossible to actually catch them in the act of being loud!
Shush!
Recent research carried out over the last few years shows that noise pollution can have very detrimental effects on people and lead to an increase in mental and physical health problems. The social cost of urban traffic noise is much higher today than a decade ago, with lost productivity, sleep disturbance and health costs from increases in heart attacks, strokes and dementia, all apparently exacerbated by road noise.
Complaints about stressful noise levels are three times higher in the most economically deprived areas so the government are bringing these noise detectors in under their Levelling Up Agenda.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:
We want those in Britain’s noisiest streets, who are kept up at night by unbearable revving engines and noisy exhausts, to come forward with the help of volunteer areas to test and perfect the latest innovative technology.
For too long, rowdy drivers have been able to get away with disturbing our communities with illegal noisy vehicles. It’s time we clamp down on this nuisance, banish the boy racer and restore peace and quiet to local streets.
The announcement in April came after initial testing of a prototype noise camera by the DfT in 2019 which proved that the system can usually identify the culprits and attribute the noise level to them individually.
Soyez Silencieux!
Wemoto News has covered the trialling of these acoustic cameras before when they were being tested in
France, in 2019, so how do you feel about them being used here, would you welcome a quieter world (remember lockdown and the sound of the birds singing in the silence?) or feel it’s yet another big brother is watching you issue?
As always, we’d really like to hear what you think, so let us know your thoughts at
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