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Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

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Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#131

Post by broken-kebab »

t8sr wrote: post #130
broken-kebab wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Zurich is definitely an important IT hub, but "Bay Area of Europe" stretches things a lot.

Name one other place on the continent that has: 1) At least token engineering presence by every major tech company 2) Tech-savvy VC, legal, audit and tax services you can get on a short notice 3) A pool of talent to fill any engineering position 4) A funnel from a big engineering university to the industry that generates startups 5) Tax authorities willing to work through complicated situations like acquihires, IP ri…

You said it yourself. I like Zurich, but I'm not sure just a list of checkmarks makes it comparable to Bay Area, or even brings it to the top in Europe. Quantitative metrics are important, and I think Zürich is too a bit small, and not quite fast-moving for the grande title.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#132

Post by BobaFloutist »

vel0city wrote: post #127
nopelynopington wrote: post #74

I live in a very leafy area with a lot of deciduous forest cover, so we're no stranger to leaves. I have never understood leafblowing. It seems like such busy work. It's not hugely common here but I have seen people carefully shepherding leaves into little piles on pathways, battling against the entropy of a light breeze. I'm sure there's a good reason but it always just seems like the ultimate expression of man tryi…

My main use case for a leaf blower is to blow lawn clippings off the sidewalks, paths, and roads back on to my lawn after mowing and trimming. Rakes aren't effective for such small trimmed parts. My leaf blower is battery electric though so its a good bit quieter than the gas ones others use, although I do agree its still one of the loudest parts of my yard maintenance.

> Rakes aren't effective for such small trimmed parts.

Well, yeah, they have such big gaps because leaves are big. Have you tried a push-broom? That would be the first thing I'd reach for.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#133

Post by devilbunny »

ffsm8 wrote: post #104
gutafoki wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I basically live in the forest and get an unreasonable amount of leaves each autumn. Most of these leaves are also from oak and do not decompose well, leaving the lawn a mess in the spring. Using a rake is unreasonable for me, and a leaf blower saves me many, many hours each year that I can spend better elsewhere.

> Using a rake is unreasonable Why though? It's generally a lot quicker unless you're a very old person It's however infinitely more fun with the leave blower, I admit to that!

Obviously, I'm not you, but at my previous home I had a lot of pine trees (so needles rather than leaves, and lots of cones to remove as well) on a corner lot (so effectively two front yards). I also had a mulching lawn mower.

During the fall and winter, I would mow two or three times. The mulching blade made quick work of the detritus and it was faster and less work than raking the whole thing. I'm far enough south that snow, while possible, was still a novelty not guaranteed to happen every year.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#134

Post by vel0city »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #132
vel0city wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main use case for a leaf blower is to blow lawn clippings off the sidewalks, paths, and roads back on to my lawn after mowing and trimming. Rakes aren't effective for such small trimmed parts. My leaf blower is battery electric though so its a good bit quieter than the gas ones others use, although I do agree its still one of the loudest parts of my yard maintenance.

> Rakes aren't effective for such small trimmed parts. Well, yeah, they have such big gaps because leaves are big. Have you tried a push-broom? That would be the first thing I'd reach for.

Sure, a push broom would work for the base task of getting the trimmings moved off the path, but then I'd want to disperse said trimmings somewhat evenly across the yard instead of just piled up at the edges. A push broom wasn't as effective to do the same while taking more effort and time. Especially since for the trimmings that went out into the street I need to get them up over the curb as well.

I used to use a broom before I got the leaf blower. The blower is way faster and disperses the trimmings more evenly across my yard than the broom.

I do end up using a rake though for leaves, as for actual leaf gathering usage the rake is faster and far more efficient at actually making nice, easy to handle piles.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#135

Post by rsync »

integralid wrote: post #116
sonnig wrote: post #67

Are many HN members in Zürich? I was suprised to see this type of news with so many points, though it's quite amusing to see the mixture of different topics in the front page.

Zurich is an important city for IT in Europe, and a city I personally like as a visitor. But that's not it - I find this restriction interesting, and I wanted to learn more. I contrast this with the unrestricted American "freedom to" that I usually see in HN.

Many, many US towns are banning gas powered leaf blowers - and even gas powered lawn equipment, generally.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#136

Post by tasoeur »

1718627440 wrote: post #77
tasoeur wrote: post #72

Maybe it’s just me but I wonder why western countries don’t implement noise limits for vehicles with sirens in residential areas (fire trucks, police, ambulance etc.). It always felt to me unnecessarily loud.

I don't now where you live, but there seam to be drastic differences between countries. These vehicle do have an in-city and out-city loudness. Also here they tend to have the siren off most of the time and only turn them on immediately before an intersection.

I live in Paris, France and it’s so loud (but people here don’t really respect emergency vehicle so it could be part of why it’s so loud). In contrast, I spent a month in Tokyo Japan; and even though I was near a police station, it was nowhere near the sound level of what we have here. Curious what other countries you have in mind?

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#137

Post by tasoeur »

apothegm wrote: post #126
tasoeur wrote: post #72

Maybe it’s just me but I wonder why western countries don’t implement noise limits for vehicles with sirens in residential areas (fire trucks, police, ambulance etc.). It always felt to me unnecessarily loud.

They’ve made them louder and louder over the years. That’s because cars have improved soundproofing to keep out the road noise of the tires against asphalt. But that also means it’s harder for drivers to hear sirens. Plus sound systems have gotten louder (in some cases almost drowning out sirens for people outside the vehicle as well as inside!) TLDR: arms race against audibility for drivers, with residents’ sanity a…

Your points make sense, I didn’t think about it that way. I wish there was a standard to override nearby vehicles with radio / audio to signal the presence of the emergency ones, but probably not happening anytime soon… Maybe another future win for self driving cars that can be more aware of those things and smooth out traffic

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#138

Post by beAbU »

sonnig wrote: post #67

Are many HN members in Zürich? I was suprised to see this type of news with so many points, though it's quite amusing to see the mixture of different topics in the front page.

The leafblower is one of those partisan issues where one camp likes to score internet points by joining the chorus against Unpopular Thing even though they have never been impacted by it, and the other camp defending it because their area really gets a lot of leaves compared to the rest, leaves kill their lawns, and brooms/rakes are seemingly ineffective or they don't exist.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#139

Post by beAbU »

t8sr wrote: post #130
broken-kebab wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Zurich is definitely an important IT hub, but "Bay Area of Europe" stretches things a lot.

Name one other place on the continent that has: 1) At least token engineering presence by every major tech company 2) Tech-savvy VC, legal, audit and tax services you can get on a short notice 3) A pool of talent to fill any engineering position 4) A funnel from a big engineering university to the industry that generates startups 5) Tax authorities willing to work through complicated situations like acquihires, IP ri…

Dublin competes on almost all these bullets, except maybe #4, even though there are a few universities in the area with prestige.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#140

Post by beAbU »

cafard wrote: post #122

In Washington, DC, gasoline-powered leaf blowers are forbidden. But less than an hour ago, I passed a powerful-looking one ready for use on a lawn nearby. We finally bought a battery-powered leaf blower. This is really not for the lawn, which is relatively small and easily raked. Rather, my wife likes to remove the leaves from the garden beds. These are difficult to rake, what with shrubs etc., and one generally brin…

Leaves in garden beds keeps moisture in, keeps dust low, help insulate against thermal events, and becomes a good source of nutrients over time.

Is there a reason why your wife wants them removed from the beds? Unless we're talking about an amount of leaves that's endangering the plants there?

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