Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

swissinfo.ch

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 149 posts

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#31

Post by sysguest »

sschueller wrote: post #6
NedF wrote: post #4

> There is also a new restriction for battery-powered models. They may only be used from October to December. If you want to live in nature and in a city you need the tools to manage it. Cutting the trees down is also a valid solution. It's the classic arsehole world we have become, people have to be indignant about everything. For the people who don't create, lazy sloths sitting in their basements, they lash out at…

We had weekly leaf blowing outside our office regardless if it was raining or not by the management staff of other buildings. If you don't pick up what you blew away what is the point? It got really out of hand.

the point? well... blocking the road drains & inducing flood?

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#32

Post by terryf »

NedF wrote: post #4

> There is also a new restriction for battery-powered models. They may only be used from October to December. If you want to live in nature and in a city you need the tools to manage it. Cutting the trees down is also a valid solution. It's the classic arsehole world we have become, people have to be indignant about everything. For the people who don't create, lazy sloths sitting in their basements, they lash out at…

Rakes exist you know - we use those for our yard. It's not that hard really.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#33

Post by sysguest »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #14
sschueller wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had weekly leaf blowing outside our office regardless if it was raining or not by the management staff of other buildings. If you don't pick up what you blew away what is the point? It got really out of hand.

They are paid to do this, they are not paid to check the weather.

hmm then why are they paid to do this?

it's not to blame those workers, but re-think about the job itself

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#34

Post by beeforpork »

NedF wrote: post #4

> There is also a new restriction for battery-powered models. They may only be used from October to December. If you want to live in nature and in a city you need the tools to manage it. Cutting the trees down is also a valid solution. It's the classic arsehole world we have become, people have to be indignant about everything. For the people who don't create, lazy sloths sitting in their basements, they lash out at…

> It's the classic arsehole world we have become, people have to be indignant about everything.

They always have been. But this is not a case of that. Leaf blowers are loud and disperse dog poop. It's disgusting. Use a broom instead.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#35

Post by sschueller »

sysguest wrote: post #31
sschueller wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had weekly leaf blowing outside our office regardless if it was raining or not by the management staff of other buildings. If you don't pick up what you blew away what is the point? It got really out of hand.

the point? well... blocking the road drains & inducing flood?

This wasn't the city, they were blowing the leaves into the street making that issue worse. The city uses other equipment to clean the roads, drains etc.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#36

Post by misja111 »

NedF wrote: post #4

> There is also a new restriction for battery-powered models. They may only be used from October to December. If you want to live in nature and in a city you need the tools to manage it. Cutting the trees down is also a valid solution. It's the classic arsehole world we have become, people have to be indignant about everything. For the people who don't create, lazy sloths sitting in their basements, they lash out at…

I don't get why you're so upset. Zurich gardeners can still use leaf blowers when leaves are falling, which is between October and December. Only they need to be electric.

The reason is not only environmental, also many people (including myself) were unhappy with the noise of the petrol powered ones. They are very loud, and it seems the typical Zurich neighbor always decides to clean up his garden on a Saturday morning at 7AM.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#37

Post by masklinn »

Denvercoder9 wrote: post #18
NedF wrote: post #4

> There is also a new restriction for battery-powered models. They may only be used from October to December. If you want to live in nature and in a city you need the tools to manage it. Cutting the trees down is also a valid solution. It's the classic arsehole world we have become, people have to be indignant about everything. For the people who don't create, lazy sloths sitting in their basements, they lash out at…

> when you work in gardening half the time is cleaning (leaf blowing, hedging and mowing) How much of this is just to make things look nice, as opposed to actually functional?

It is, if anything, anti-functional: unless it smothers everything the litter provides nitrogen and nutrients as it decomposes.

Getting rid of all the litter for that “perfect lawn” requires re-introducing nitrogen artificially (historically lawns would be grown with clover, the clover being a nitrogen fixer for the grass, that stopped being a thing when people started widely applying broad-leaf herbicides like 2,4D, the lawn industry then labelled clover a weed to make killing it a goal rather than a negative side effect).

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#38

Post by holowoodman »

intsunny wrote: post #7
pferde wrote: post #2

Cool, now do loud motorbikes in cities. Those things, several times louder than cars, should be illegal anywhere but on isolated highways.

100000% Agree. Here in Germany, I'm convinced the Police simply don't care about motorcycles with modified mufflers. The sound is deafening. In the last decade the noise has gotten worse and worse. Once one of those small penis motorcycle owners saw that I was covering my three year old child's ears as he passed by, and only then did he put his bike into neutral and walked it by us.

Problem with motorcycles in Germany is, they are usually too fast for the police to catch with their car, and the helmet prevents usable photos of the driver. But unfortunately the laws require that the driver committing the speed/noise/redlight offense is identified and fined, fining the owner by license plate doesn't work (except if the bike was modified).

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#39

Post by rsynnott »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #24
intsunny wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100000% Agree. Here in Germany, I'm convinced the Police simply don't care about motorcycles with modified mufflers. The sound is deafening. In the last decade the noise has gotten worse and worse. Once one of those small penis motorcycle owners saw that I was covering my three year old child's ears as he passed by, and only then did he put his bike into neutral and walked it by us.

Not every inconsiderate person is compensating for something. Some people just have different opinions from you about how to behave in public. And no, I don't have a loud motorcycle.

Well, no, but, you know, common things are common.

These, along with various other obnoxiously loud and/or big vehicles, are _strongly_ coded 'insecure man'. Not necessarily insecure about that in particular, of course, but insecure about something.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#40

Post by Etheryte »

fsargent wrote: post #8
pferde wrote: post #2

Cool, now do loud motorbikes in cities. Those things, several times louder than cars, should be illegal anywhere but on isolated highways.

Already done. Switzerland is a civilised country. https://lenews.ch/2025/01/17/switzerlands-strict-new-road-no...

Making something illegal and actually enforcing it are two very different things though. Most countries in the world have a cap on noise levels your vehicle can make, most don't do much to enforce it outside of yearly checkups.
Post reply on HN