Amsterdam to use "noise cameras" against too loud cars
Amsterdam has started the fight against noisy motorcycles and cars. On Friday, the city placed electric road signs in two places to warn road users if their vehicles are too loud. The warnings will eventually be replaced by “noise cameras,” which, like speed cameras, automatically send a fine to the...
I live in Amsterdam and can confirm this is a real problem. Lots of assholes with small dicks who pimp their cars or motorcycles to be loud as fuck. I applaud this measure
Yeah I wished they would do this in my city. Everyone complaining about privacy has clearly never had to put up with these assholes.
Otherwise known as microphones?
Cameras with microphones. Once a loud vehicle is detected the license plate has to be photographed.
It reminds me of the case in NY where they charged someone for murder because they caught his license plate while he was driving near a shooting with no evidence whatsoever other than being near the shooting.
Great, for added big brother points, the government could literally listen to every conversation on every street corner...
Edit. Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to why the police having live recording microphones everywhere is a good idea, generally you'd need a warrant to record citizens.
But sure, this is just for loud exhausts and has no other possible uses. Lol!
I always ask myself with these sorts of things, what would the CCP do?
China’s ambition to collect a staggering amount of personal data from everyday citizens is more expansive than previously known, a Times investigation has found. Phone-tracking devices are now everywhere. The police are creating some of the largest DNA databases in the world. And the authorities are building upon facial recognition technology to collect voice prints from the general public.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/world/asia/china-surveillance-investigation.html
I don't think it's wise to install potential dual use surveillance tech that a future government/leader could use
Many of them in a grid.
One microphone would be like having 1 ear. If you’ve ever known someone who is deaf in 1 ear, they have trouble locating the direction sounds come from. IIRC, the implementation involves something like ~50—100 or so microphones. If you have a lot of noise entering your house you can point the thing towards a window and it will generate a heat map image showing red color where the noise is the highest.
Good. Sick of the noise. Now figure out how to deal with the illegal ebikes and scooters riding like dickheads using bike paths at well above 25kmph.
A couple hundred meters away from me, there's a piece of a two-lane two-lane road that has no traffic lights for a little over 1 km and has the priority of way, too - meaning that at night, you can get a somewhat high speed over there for a little while without leaving the city limits.
There's only a few bikers in my city, but holy shit do they make "good" use of the opportunity in summer. I really wish we also had this kind of cameras out there, because the noise from just one is insane, especially at dead of night, and sometimes they do this in packs.
The best part is that it never lasts once - they just speed between the two traffic lights for a while, making a shit ton of that noise.
There are also buildings with windows overlooking that same road from a much closer distance than mine. Can't really imagine what it's like for people living there, even though we're basically meters away from each other.
Great to see! I really hope more cities will follow suit to deal with this problem as well.
Wish we had that here. I could only afford a home on a busy street and the pollution is bad enough we it is without the modded trucks, muscle cars and motorcycle racing by at 1am. It's illegal, but uninforced.
And that crying about being spied on... we already have cameras everywhere, actually having them used for something we want would be lovely. This and carpool lane enforcement, regulated in a way that can't be abused (unlike red light and stop sign cameras, which local governments really abuse given lack of top down regulation).
I hear that the UK is trialling them in England an Wales, and London also had a trial run in 2021/22. Not sure what came of it, though.
Trouble is, the UK has no law limiting the noise a car can make. Only if there is e.g. a modified exhaust can the police even do something.
This is not true. See rule 123 of the Highway Code which says it is illegal to modify your vehicle to make more noise and that the noise of a vehicle should be below 86 db.
The current issue is that enforcement is not proactive and the fines are very low. Most police departments only issue a warning for first time offenders.
For an extensive review.
It is unfortunate that some countries are using cameras, microphones and others to control the behaviour of people. I agree that it is a required measure - as some people do not change their behaviours out of good will - but it is definitely not ideal.
Hopefully, in some years it will no longer be necessary, as people will have those good behaviours deeply rooted.
You forgot that there will always be young men succumbing to testosterone.
Maybe next they can introduce these in Sweden, to deal with the eurodanceraggare and loud-tailpipe dickheads that plague the roads.
This seems to be a problem everywhere in the world where young drivers can afford shitty cars.
Great news!
I'd like one of those for the park across the street where alcoholics congregate each night and yell at each other until 3AM.
I agree that it is sad that we have to come to that, but if good procedures are in place to make sure that the cameras and microphones are used for only this purpose, this can really help to have a better living environment.
I wish my city was implementing just half of the measures Amsterdam is doing
Ngl would community self-reporting be better? I don't even know how to report traffic violations etc. in the US. Do they also need proof in order to do something about it? I wonder if being able to record and send video to the police of loud vehicles would be better. Or perhaps that could turn out worse?
If a motorcycle is zooming at Mach 3 in a general vicinity of your house it's pretty hard to report due to practical issues like getting shoes on, getting to your Mach 4 capable vehicle, locating the offender and catching up with him to get his plates.
Your solution has the major drawback of not enabling further surveillance of the population under the guise of public safety.
I don't think you want to outsource these kinds of things to the general population. If I have problems with noisy drivers in front of my house, I'd have to stand outside all day waiting for them to take a picture, or I'd have to install a camera. Both aren't things a private person should have to do.
Please sell these cheaply to consumers. I would really love to have one that photographs the plates extremely high pitch 50cc scooters on my street. I would pay $€£ 1000 for the ability to launch rotten eggs when someone uses the horn at 2am.
Anyone celebrating this is a fool.
This will lead to more spying on you, gives police even more power, and offers you only less noise for how many cars?
Trees, greenery and better housing design might solve the issue or make it not bad.
Self reporting, followed by an inspection to verify the car's sound could solve this issue.
But more surveillance for another ones of the world surveillance states is so fucking stupid.
For me, it's worth it. I live next to a forest already, far outside the city center, and there's still assholes racing at night at the nearby street because it's quite secluded and straight.
Also, I'm not worried about microphones on busy streets. It's a public space already, which affects the content of my speech already. Microphones at home should be much more important for anyone worried about privacy.
I just can't imagine how people in the comments are happy to see this. It's like upside-down world.
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