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Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

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Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#81

Post by easywood »

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…

I live in an neighborhood with a lot of retired people, and I agree with the "busy work" sentiment. As soon as some leaves have fallen, you can hear them firing up their leafblowers. Why? Why not wait until there is a decent amount of leaves and ... use a rake? I really think it's because they don't have anything else to do and it gives them a sense of purpose.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#82

Post by Orygin »

unglaublich wrote: post #49
4gotunameagain wrote: post #29

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..

A democratic vote and a clear regulation isn't a "civilized way"? In a free society, where the default is "allowed", the only lever that you have is restriction. We can also turn it around, we prohibit everything unless it's explicitly allowed. Then people don't have to complain so much about "too many prohibiting rules".

> Then people don't have to complain so much about "too many prohibiting rules".

They can't complain if it's prohibited, straight to jail!

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#83

Post by blitzar »

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.

Many live in an HOA in the US - noisy leaf blowers are on the agenda at every meeting.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#84

Post by willvarfar »

BSDobelix wrote: post #69
unglaublich wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Zürich, the worst offender is the outdated two cycle moped. Sadly, not much is being done about it because of the cult and retro status of these things.

At the Gold-coast the worst offenders are the Bugatti, Lotus and Ferrari leasers...how is it legal to be that loud??

People have loud motorbikes and cars because they want attention. It seems very fundamentally selfish.

I've spent a lot of time in the countryside where there is a motorway in the distance, and the general low rumble road noise seems to be mostly the tires etc. But then sometimes a loud motorbike revs and that really carries and intrudes.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#85

Post by 1718627440 »

FredPret wrote: post #28
Denvercoder9 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Looking nice is part of the function

That doesn't sound like a garden to me, a garden produces food.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#86

Post by aneutron »

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.

Funnily enough, I got into trouble in Korea (Jeju to be specific) because of this. I had just stopped at a red light (huge intersection), and I saw a police car get behind me, they had their lights on and put on the sirens.

In my home country (France), lights mean emergency, sound means "MOVE ITS URGENT" (and they generally ONLY use sirens when it is REALLY urgent). So when they started the siren, I put my warning lights on and moved slowly through the red light and to the outside of the road (I did not continue moving).

The guy ripped me a new one in Korean, but then I explained that I thought it was urgent because we were all stopped and they put the sound on so I moved out of the way in the safest way I could and even stopped. He calmed down eventually.

Apparently, it's normal in Korea for police cars to 1) always have the lights on and 2) just randomly blast the sirens going about their day.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#87

Post by 1718627440 »

herbst wrote: post #47
holowoodman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Is that why some YouTubers started to make ads for a "sue your motorcycle speeding tickets invalid" company as if this is really working, because it is? Germany has such a specific way of making laws with holes.

I'm not so sure that's actually true, because when you get a speeding ticket, the owner absolutely is fined. He has a right to identify the driver or just take it on himself.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#88

Post by t8sr »

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 and its environs are basically the Bay Area of Europe. Probably explains the huge concentration of HN users.

Re: Zürich voters ban noisy leaf blowers

#89

Post by BSDobelix »

t8sr wrote: post #88
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 and its environs are basically the Bay Area of Europe. Probably explains the huge concentration of HN users.

Well there are the Zoogler's and the ETH ;)
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