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Seems like one compromise would be that they can only be used during a few-hour period every other week or so. So you'd only get the noise in a predictable window.
Those leaf blowers put more garbage into the air than a car or pickup truck. They're that bad.
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Switzerland has noise ordnances, and like other traffic related offenses they are aggressively enforced. Aftermarket mods, revving your engine, or late shifting can net you a cool 5 figures fine.
Sadly, it's barely enforced.
Our street control systems are just getting started. Most people seem to have no idea whats to come.
Seems like one compromise would be that they can only be used during a few-hour period every other week or so. So you'd only get the noise in a predictable window.
> 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…
You don't need a leaf blower to collect up the leaves in a reasonable time. We've managed to maintain cities with trees for hundreds of years without leaf blowers, and have owned one I can confirm that it cuts maybe 20% of the time over simply using a rake.
I could understand the ban for residential use, fine - I agree just using a rake if it is just leaves, but for tree work / hedge work where the owner expects "tidy" as one of the things they see at the end of the job they're essential. Without then It'd mean an extra couple of hours on every job, which means less jobs, which means higher costs. The fine chips, the hedge cuttings and the tiny snapped twigs they take ages to clear up. Especially on gravel or grass. Fast moving air is the perfect tool for cleaning up this stuff on all surfaces.
All that being said, it is actually better to leave material for habitat and detritivores. It's really valuable, so in that regard it may force peoples hands in "accepting the mess" or as I like to say "the reconfigured habitat".
It'll boil down to "the cost", "the mess" or "the noise".
context: I'm an arborist as well as a software engineer.
It would be nice if we could solve our problems in a nice and civil way, and to be considerate to one another instead of making things illegal. But then again, we are talking about a country where in many buildings you are not allowed to shower after 9pm.. Or take out the glass to the recycling on sundays..
The glass thing is accurate tho!
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Sadly, it's barely enforced.
Depends on where you are. Thun and Bern started to enforce it much more just recently (with great success), afaik Zurich has their own task force as well. Our street control systems are just getting started. Most people seem to have no idea whats to come.
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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.
However police is actively monitoring noise levels in some places, picking out the cars and remove them from the streets. Just last weekend my closest city checked 15 and removed about half of these cars in one evening.
Seems like one compromise would be that they can only be used during a few-hour period every other week or so. So you'd only get the noise in a predictable window.
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/de/stadtleben/veranstaltungen-u...
Seems like one compromise would be that they can only be used during a few-hour period every other week or so. So you'd only get the noise in a predictable window.
In the US, at least, it doesn't help that almost everyone using leaf blowers are using the cheap, loud, stinky two cycle motor abominations. Those leaf blowers put more garbage into the air than a car or pickup truck. They're that bad.