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New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

roadandtrack.com

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Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#261
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar deal here. Some asshole at my apartment got an expensive new car that literally the entire building (with god knows how many units, it's big) hears every single time he enters or leaves. He revs his engine twice on every single floor of the parking garage and all along the street I'm situated on. He'll even do it for hours on end (he did on Monday!). I honestly think he's trying to harass someone in particula…

If he does that enough, I wouldn't be surprised by someone taking some self-help measures. Gas tank donations are one common approach, as is helping aesthetics by removing those unsightly air valves on tires.

Nobody will do anything because the kind of people who are annoyed by this kind of behavior are generally well off and religiously law abiding. The kind of people who would do something a) aren't that bothered by it and b) generally have bigger thorns in their sides than someone else's loud car

This is fundamentally a conflict of class based social norms. The kind of people who have obnoxiously loud cars don't have a lot of the kind of people who complain about obnoxiously loud cars in their social circles.

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#262
post #2

Good. I look forward to this enforcement in my city. I currently live against a major road. During the night, the traffic noise isn’t disturbing, except for about one vehicle in a thousand. And that motorcycle wakes me at 3am. For weeks on end. My neighbor’s kid’s motorcycle. On his way to work at 3am, has to gun it when turning out of the neighborhood, waking everyone. These are neighbors who had shot their next doo…

How do you not go to jail for shooting the neighbor's cat? There is no possible claim of self defense like there would be with a dog.

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But loud pipes save lives! /s We have a similar problem. Replace "motorcycle" with "bro-dozer" and make it 4am. Noise sucks. And since the pandemic lockdowns have lifted, it's even more abrasive. Those few months of relative quiet were marvelous. Where I live, it's a lot of tire noise from a highway over a mile away - just a constant background "brrrrrr" that I didn't notice before and can't ignore today.

Curiously, Harley sounds don't raise my hackles the way a loud sport-bike does. What are they, Ducati's or something? There is just something just so shrill about their sound.

Most likely the Japanese bikes. A lot of Ducati's run in a parallel twin cylinder format, which doesn't rev as high as the inline 4's.

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. unarmed does not mean they were not a threat or innocent 2. No human endeavor is perfect. I am willing to accept some tragic mistakes in exchange for the prevention of crimes and the dissuasion of criminals.

1. True, but neither one was shown here, so you can choose any assumption you want, and mine was innocence (the law requires the same assumption until proven otherwise) 2. There is no evidence that any prevention of crime was gained in exchange for the deaths of these innocent unarmed people. If anything it created an environment where the law is respected less.

1. true 2. false

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#265

About 7 years ago I was toying with making an open-source raspberry pi with a decibel meter you could stick to your window and it would listen for loud noises and tweet the police department to say that a loud noise (likely motorcycle groups that ride up and down my street) had been located at X location. I had a few friends who said they would also put them in their windows, so we could have a few devices coordinate…

I had a neighbor with a Dodge Charger with no muffler. I talked to a police officer about it. He basically told me that he himself drove a loud car, and his neighbors complained to him about it because he leaves for work at 5:00 AM, and that's the nature of sports cars and you just have to get used to it.

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, this system does kinda work and allows for police to charge antisocial assholes with a crime while letting normal, reasonable people who made a simple mistake off with a warning.

And to charge black people and not charge white people. Noise is noise. There's no need to be discretionary.

Ugh. This is so tiresome

Why do some people find it necessary to turn every discussion into some racism witch-hunt?

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#267
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s because the last thing anyone wants is a loud noise complaint to escalate into a shooting.

Not sure why this is getting downvoted, increasing exposure to police increases number of shootings, especially for minorities. And don’t ask for citations, this is and has been all over everywhere for years.

Okay, I'll bite. I downvoted it because, even if true, it's irrelevant and promotes a toxic (and I use that term advisedly) narrative.

Yes, when you enforce laws, some people are a-holes and escalate to unlawful violence. Sometimes cops, sometimes civilians.

The appropriate reaction to make sure that isn't tolerated either, to improve police-community relations, to train police better, and to review whether we need to update laws to match consensus on expected human behavior.

The appropriate reaction is not in a hundred miles of "oh, well, gosh, do we really need to enforce laws anymore? Someone might get hurt!", and the forum is a worse place for tolerating that mentality.

Now, to be sure, there are many laws that fit the last category above and should probably be scaled back for being petty and kafkaesque. But, "don't wake up a million people around you for your own personal thrills" does not make the list.

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#268
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a motorcycle forum, someone asked whether they should upgrade their suspension or their exhaust. I suggested that an upgraded suspension affects your quality of life, an upgraded exhaust affects everyone else. We don't need the windows open to hear the cars and such around here (and they're modern windows). We're near a freeway, but it's not the only culprit. The freeway is either silent or quite noisy depending o…

To be fair, riding a quiet motorcycle is likely to get you sideswiped more if the people can't hear you at all. I've noticed the difference of head movements when changing the exhaust on my new motorcycle, from stock to a louder aftermarket. Prior, people would just veer into my lane without even checking. Anecdotal, but very noticeable difference for myself.

Maybe you just shouldn't ride a motorcycle if, in order to feel safe, you feel the need to unreasonably increase your level of noise pollution.

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#269
post #4

One egregiously loud motorcycle rolling through manhattan can be a nuisance to literally millions of people. This is unreasonable and a ticketing system like this makes a ton of sense. Police enforcement could probably solve the issue just as effectively. Cops ignore loud honking and loud cars when its right in front of them. If they would just stop ignoring such things the frequency would surely go down as well.

I don't know what it's like where you live, but in California it increasingly looks like our law enforcement organizations are either dreadfully understaffed or failing miserably at enforcing basic traffic laws. I just drove to San Diego and back from the Bay Area and counted zero cops on the way down and two on the way back, and I returned on Super Bowl eve. In the south Bay Area, I regularly see folks intentionally…

> I don't know what it's like [in NYC]…

It's hilarious. Our biggest traffic offenders are the cops themselves. They speed, run reds on a whim, park in the middle of sidewalks, it's totally cool and we love it. It’s so great that there's a twitter account (@placardabuse) that tracks public officials who flout the law and has no shortage of content.

As for enforcement: they don't. The explanation I've heard is, "We don't like being the bad guy." They join the force to become CSI detectives or terrarism-fighting SWAT soldiers, not to be that shithead who ruined your commute home.

I'm definitely sure that our new police-chief-mayor — who just cancelled a widely-loved car-free-street program in Clinton Hill because one of his cronies thought it was annoying — will be right on top of things.

[edit] Oh, and regarding these noise cameras… the very vocal minority of New Yorkers who have cars fight tooth and nail against camera speeding enforcement. The rest of us don't speak up because we don't have cars so we don't feel as affected. Also we don't even have control over our own laws, that’s all in the hands of the state gov't. So I have little faith that this will plan will survive, but hey, fingers crossed X,,

Re: New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars

#270
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a freeway about a mile from my house. Summer nights with the windows open, I can easily be awakened by a very loud motorcycle. The freeway is raised and I'm in a sort of canyon (no line of sight to freeway, though!!). Maybe the acoustics are just perfect for my bedroom, but I doubt it's just me. There are probably a million people within earshot of this noise. Lest people think I'm a motorcycle hater: I owned…

On a motorcycle forum, someone asked whether they should upgrade their suspension or their exhaust. I suggested that an upgraded suspension affects your quality of life, an upgraded exhaust affects everyone else. We don't need the windows open to hear the cars and such around here (and they're modern windows). We're near a freeway, but it's not the only culprit. The freeway is either silent or quite noisy depending o…

In NYC most of the offenders are motorcycles with the occasional Lambo man-children.
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