Most motorists want noise cameras installed to clamp down on loud cars

Most motorists? Why is it only people who enjoy motoring that get a say in this? What about the rest of us?

I don't drive and I want them to crack down on those loud as feck vehicles, especially the dirt bike races they have regularly.

Loud as feckin hell.

Car brain headline / premise. Of course only the opinion of motorists is actually valid, you poor jaywalking peasant!
I think the point is to show that even amongst their peers, people who love loud pipes are a minority that the majority would gladly see being stopped.
I agree now but I once was young and had a loud pipe on my truck and on my motorcycle (always with a catalytic converter though!), I think it's just a natural phase in the car person's evolution... Then you've got a bunch of Harley riders and Dodge Ram drivers that never grow past that phase...
I think they were assuming that 100% of non-motorists agreed

Intentionally loud exhausts are obnoxious and selfish. As much as I dislike it, however, I'd far rather deal with the noise than having yet more surveillance. We're already the #3 most surveilled country in the world, only the USA and China is worse.

Harley Davidson bikes are just noise pollution. Unlike cars they are build like this out of the factory.
- Yea to me it's not the volume of the engine/exhaust. It's that it's intentionally obnoxious
- No they aren't. Harleys are quiet with the factory exhaust, it's just that they are commonly modified with aftermarket (louder) exhausts.
We may be number 3 but we must be number 1 in terms of % of people monitored by some form of camera. The USA road network is nowhere near as heavily monitored as the UK.
Driving through France, Belgium and the Netherlands was very free compared to the UK.
- A taxi driver in Singapore once told me that they hold this title, ahead of the UK. He then pointed out the cameras on almost every lamp post.
Electrics cars will make it a non issue but then we will be stuck with the surveillance. Our country is scary. No one cares.
Having said that if you are intentionally being noisy for noisy sake there should be harder punishments. Even lose your license for a bit, it's not a got given right to drive. You got to earn it.
All drivers should be considerate of others
- Electrics cars will make it a non issue
  I do not see EVs replacing scooters (which are driven by lower budget commuters). A single unmuffled scooter driving through #Paris at 3am can wake up 10,000 people according to Bruitparif. And don’t forget horns. Assholes will used their horns at 3am on my street. The only thing they give a fuck about is their own convenience when their favorite parking spot is taken.
  The idea of harsh punishments works if a vehicle is continuously loud because it will eventually cross paths with a cop. So that position is fair enough. But what about horns? There’s never a cop around when horns are misused.
- It seems most of the UK has forgotten the 5th of November
I’d far rather deal with the noise than having yet more surveillance.
My cognitive dissonance triggers on this point because one of the reasons I cycle is privacy. I am also firmly in the #fuckCars camp (noise, pollution, death, selfishness of people putting their convenience above lives of other people & animals). It’s hard to give a shit about car drivers having privacy. And also realize that car drivers inherently sign up to give up privacy in order to use a personal car anyway (registration, insurance, banking transactions tied to those activities and their fuel purchases, etc). The fuel purchases of car drivers feed the oil industry, which in the US feeds the war chests of republican candidates who disrespect both privacy and the environment.
Yet people making the wise pro-privacy considerate decision to cycle are still exposed to breath car fumes, noise, and life-threatening physics (e=mc²).
Hard to have sympathy for car drivers. Although my dissonance needle moves a bit more if these noise cams are always recording video and thus capturing all people not in cars. I don’t know if that’s the case.
yes, and here you have an opportunity for that overwatch to benefit your daily lives. Accepting it everywhere else but bitching about it here seems pretty self defeating.
- If it wasn’t obvious, I don’t accept it everywhere else, I think the state surveillance apparatus should be completely dismantled.

Noise cameras? They're called MICROPHONES

But they need a camera to grab the license plate of the offending vehicle....
I’m not sure if this a joke. Noise cameras are a real thing. They use an array of microphones to show which parts of an image are emitting sound and at what level.
I read it as being a riff off of "speed" cameras, which are obviously cameras triggered by speed and not cameras that capture the concept of speed on film.
I think the cameras are supposed to be triggered by noise

I live in a city center, and frequently have loud cars drive past. Some are substantially worse than others. The loudest of them are so loud that when they go past I can't hear my TV for 30 seconds or so, and that's with my windows all closed and listening via headphones.

Something really does need to be done to enforce the noise laws that are often being ignored.

I never even considered that was an option. I figured loud jackasses was just something we'd have to live with.

Can we do this with mouths too?

I'm on the fence. Daft custom exhaust on a 1.5 turbo 3cyl is stupid, but there's no way I can agree to more surveillance.

I guess it depends what your comfort level for surveillance is.
In this case, it would likely be "camera activated at 96dBA, numberplate in view was BO55 MAN, NIP being sent to keepers address"
- It would be brilliant if it was this isolated. But it seems like every step in surveillance always leads to more surveillance. It's always some innocent excuse, without ever drawing the full picture together with preexisting stuff.
  There's now a generarion that has grown up without ever having experienced not being watched.
I'm on the fence with your statement because it kinda describes WRC cars and they're FUCKING AWESOME
- In general I wouldn't mind people having the freedom to make their cars impossible to sit any reasonable amount of time inside, but I don't currently have a suggestion on how to make certain peeps be not assholes in residential areas.
  In regards to WRC - isn't that world rally championship? I don't think I've ever seen one happening anywhere near apartment buildings on single lane streets with cars parked on both sides and kids' playground nearby.
I'm an American who stumbled here by accident but do you guys have many cars/bikes that are noisy out of the factory? The guys running Civics with a pineapple shooter look like assholes but I kind of get it if you've got a big V8 that just sounds like that
- Nothing really sounds loud out of the factory. It's always the peashooters with custom exhaust.

(Apologies for USA centric comment)

I think if that was proposed in the USA, people's heads might actually explode. When 2 roundabouts were put in nearby, some people acted like the UN new world order was on its way. I grew up in Basingstoke so I love roundabouts. Thankfully people have come around to the idea.

I'd support it just so my dog can walk near a road without some pickup gunning its engine as it flies past us. Any kind of traffic speed reduction is treated with fury over here.

People with loud pipes don't realize they look like a nobend and sound like this: https://youtube.com/shorts/s0xqopmjbSo?feature=share

I’m American and love roundabouts. I think my fellow drivers hate them because they require a small amount of thought and planning, which is too much to ask from your average American driver.
- Roundabouts are easy, and easy to learn. When I got my license, there were just three roundabouts in my state. Now there are three within two minutes of driving, and a fourth one is planned.
  Roundabouts are actually better than normal crossings for traffic flow and reducing the accident rate, but they require respect and consideration for the fellow traffic participants, so I don't expect them to work in the US.
Don't worry - that's not purely American. People here acted like the illuminati were on the march when a couple of 'school streets' were announced (no access during pick up/drop off hours
- "Think of the children!"
  school safety measures implemented
  "No, not like that!!"
I grew up in Basingstoke
You poor bastard.
- Hey, at least it's not slough or staines!
Thankfully people have come around to the idea.
Hehe
- :)
Roundabout installation should be celebrated. So much better than lights if you can drive. Maybe not so much for the walkers crossing.
- So much better than lights if you can drive.
  That's the problem, most of our drivers can't drive. I saw someone enter a roundabout in the wrong direction and get mad at everyone else.
- Frustratingly in the UK, most roundabouts now also have lights on them
Have you seen the videos of those idiots trying to use the roundabouts in the US? They were totally clueless, and not even able to follow the signs.
- It was staged. A fake.
  https://www.reddit.com/r/Kentucky/comments/n3c5zq/the_viral_roundabout_video_was_staged_by_the/
  I have seen people drive the wrong way around the local roundabouts. The most frequent error is people treating it as a four way stop and waiting for their "turn" to go, then getting frustrated when other people don't do the same.
I think if that was proposed in the USA, people’s heads might actually explode.
We already have traffic cameras everywhere, and I don't see anyone's head exploding.

Some idiot is going to hang out near the camera with a boom box and play loud engine noises every time an electric vehicle drives by.

stop giving them ideas lol
You say idiot, I say conscientious objector
- Yeah that's not what that means haha
- It will most deffo a member of the law and order party who love the law except when it impacts them.

I'll take the loud cars if we can get some real fucking regulations on headlight brightness so I don't get blinded every time I drive at night.

There is already the regulation in the Highway Code:
114: "You MUST NOT use any lights in a way which would dazzle or cause discomfort to other road users"
The "MUST NOT" indicates that this is a legal requirement and so it is a criminal offense to disobey it. Now if we could get the police to actually ENFORCE the legal requirements in the Highway Code, then maybe things might improve on the roads.
- I mean if that's the case then they have to enforce it on the companies as well because in 2023 it's the default on many models on the road, not even with their brights or high beams on.
I drive a Mini. The SUV infiltration in this country is making night driving a miserable experience for me.
- I kind of miss the days when most people around here drove a small car, now everyone's in a tank.

I'm not really in favor of surveillance but it should be legal and socially acceptable to throw rocks at cars that have been straight piped. Fuck em. If you make your car louder on purpose you should be punished

I've always called them "Fart Pipes"

Its motorbikes round my way that are stupidly loud. Not even kidding you can hear some of them a mile away. I know this because I can see the road about a mile away and still hear them!

South Park made a whole episode about these people.
Same here. And in recent years the amount of drivers are pushing their luck more. Like driving clearly illegal bikes, driving on grass parks and footpaths and even through underpasses. I saw three teenagers break into a bike shed to stash their stolen scooter in. The Police didn't seem to care much even though I called with a crime in progress. Nothing like this happened where I live a few years prior.
- Well theres no deterrent these days.
  Another one is those electric scooters, they're a real menace!
With motorbikes there is the additional problem that most of their owners actually rework them to be louder. I can regularly hear the motorbikes on the bypass, which is about the same distance, with a hill in between. You don't hear the busy car traffic, but you hear the motorbikes.

All motorists are loud. Cities aren't loud, cars are loud. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8

some are a shit-ton louder than others though
- and the difference is personal opinion. We had anti-noise bylaw removed because of 2 factors, the limit was too high for most people (96DB) and because it's really difficult and expensive to monitor. They need special noise detectors and they don't have lots of them so they only used them in areas where most people complain and it resulted in zero change while increasing costs.
  My motorcycle is loud. Louder than any stock car but it's far from 96DB yet it's also quieter than a lawn mower, or a weed whacker, or a plane so what do you about those noises?
Sod off back to fuckcars, will you?

Do it! I hate loud cars. Noise pollution kills.

I've taken to muttering "There goes the Vroom Vroom Man in his vroom vroom" every time one of these pricks rumbles by. It solves nothing, but makes me laugh.

I want headlight cameras to clamp down on idiots blinding other drivers with their brighter-than-the-Sun headlights.

So, now I have to choose which I dislike more: government surveillance spooks or jerks with loud engines? Jeez, that's a tough call.

Please. I live on one of the busier streets in my town, right by an intersection. The amount of people driving by with cars that sound like someone's farting through a megaphone are insanely obnoxious. Fuck, most the time they're shit boxes that go slower than normal cars. People in my area buy cheap, shitty cars, pay to have a falsified safety, then make them loud and obnoxious while slowing down traffic because their cars can barely accelerate.

Yes, this is something that's unfortunately necessary

Wouldn't it be cheaper to make it an MOT fail?

The point is that most really loud cars are made to be loud. And usually equipped with a way to quickly undo that, if needed.
I've seen a TV report on some policemen hunting "tuned" cars. They were following an obnoxiously loud car in an unmarked police car, stopped them, and took measurements - suddenly, the car was "just normal". But they knew what they heard, and the measurements they had taken from a distance had been way louder than the measurements taken at a defined distance from the exhaust, so they impounded the car for further investigation. And found a switch in the glove compartment that changed the car from "normal" to "loud".
You've got to catch them red-handed. As long as they can disable or just quickly undo something like that before a MOT , it won't get a single idiot and his car off the road.
- Ban it for all new cars then.
People would just remove/silence the mods for the MOT and replace them as soon as they pass.
- It's a hassle that'll at least reduce the number of people doing it
The experience in Germany is, that manufacturers will just engineer around it. You define a testing method and they will make sure their exhausts comply in that specific scenario, but are loud in all other cases. The most egregious example are probably motorcycles. The law limits most to 77dB(A), but in reality many are closer to 90dB or even louder. The government has been trying to define better standards, but we will have to see where that gets us. Real-life measurements are much harder to fake and probably more impactful.

On the bright side, at least you don't have coal-rollers...

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The camera records an image of the vehicle and its noise level, creating evidence that can be used by police to issue fines.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: "Our research with drivers shows there is a very strong desire to put an end to the scourge of excessively noisy vehicles that disturb the peace all around the country.

"It's plain wrong that those who have fitted their cars with modified exhausts, some motorbike riders and supercar owners can currently just get away with making an unacceptable amount of noise.

"There is no good reason why cars and motorbikes should make so much noise, so the sooner effective camera enforcement can be put in place the better."

Roads minister Richard Holden said: "Boy racers are an anti-social menace and we have extensively trialled noise camera technology in various parts of the country over the past year.

"We are currently analysing data from the trials and will update in due course on any future measures which will help bring peace and tranquillity back to our towns, cities and villages."

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Can't they just deal with it at the MOT?

Plus I'm pretty sure it would be pointless recording the noisy bollock whizzing up and down my road on his motorbike, because apparently number plates are optional when there's fuck all police about.

MOT doesn't happen every day.
- Is a car noisy for just one day?
I'm pretty sure that a lot of people do custom jobs, either at a shop or a hobbyist place. The nerds who are into custom exhausts can probably just switch before and after their inspection. Although granted I wish the MOT dealt with loud cars better. I heard they're going down this route, but haven't see any effect from it yet.
In the US, people with mall crawlers and enshittified "sports" cars will cheat emissions tests (assuming the state has them) and then revert their coal rolling and earsplitting mods again right afterward.
I imagine it's fairly simple to do the same for noise at the DEQ/MOT inspection. I imagine there's some sort of removeable noise damper they can shove in and bam, they get a pass.

More surveillance is always bad.

Just ban all private cars from the cities. They can park outside and take the train or bus. No more noise complaints.
- Train or bus.... outside of London? Are you fucking having a laff, mate?

You know at my old house there was an ice cream van that made my life mildly more irritating as his chimes were on ear splittingly loud (guy must have drove with earplugs), and frankly I'd have loved it if somebody would have actually enforced the law (there is actually a law for ice cream van chimes) and an automated system like this would be one way!

The one near me plays something that used to be Popeye the Sailor Man, but now sounds like some Lovecraftian signal to wake an eldritch abomination from its slumber.
- The ice cream isn't ice cream.
  Lock your doors.

The louder the engine, the smaller the dick. I wish the same would happen here in the US. Those fuckers have self-esteem issues.

I also wish they would crack down on rolling coal.
- is that a thing in the UK?
I 100% support your sentiment, but please consider reframing away from body-shaming in the future.
It's not even the engine. It's the exhaust. Nowadays they even use speakers that literally play fake engine sounds.
I don't really care what's in their pants as long as fines are harsh. 20% net worth and also we take your bike away. That should do it. Maybe public spanking too.
- 20% net worth for a non criminal offense 😂 Alright, I want cyclists to be fined 10% of their net worth when they ride straight through stop signs, 20% for red lights!
I don't really care what's in their pants as long as fines are harsh.

Am I right in thinking that these exhaust systems require drivers to inform their insurance company, because they change performance?

Do you think any of them do?
- I couldn’t possibly say!
  But there must be records of sales of exhaust kits and records of updated insurance details. The number not matching is the number of drivers without valid insurance. It wouldn’t tell you who was who but it would give an idea of the scale.
No one does that

I think this will solve itself as the electrical vehicle transition happens. Cars will become substantially quieter by default and at that point it will easy to adjust MOTs for ICE vehicles to meet more stringent noise levels.

The problem is likely after market cars and that market will likely persist.

Loud motorcycles, modded trucks, and the occasional rice rocket.

Is your vehicle stock, or did you break the sound controls on it

"Most people want surveillance installed to clamp down on autonomy"

When your expression of freedom gets in the way of my health, my gut reaction is that I need you to stop.
- So, please record all sounds around me. For my own protection.
Oh no, you're not allowed to be an obnoxious twat without consequences.
Poor boo boo.
- I wish they would install camera inside my hope as well. For added protection! I must feel safe, but I'm too scared!

I guess the question is how you could "regulate" this situation without having to add "noise cameras"

Having a police force that does some actual community policing?

I definitely think there’s an argument a classic car that was loud from the factory is different to sticking a fart cannon on a car that wasn’t loud to begin with.
There's absolutely ways to make a classic car quieter. I just think you want to run loud.

⚠ That article is a bit enshitified and autoplays video. Just a warning to anyone on a limited internet connection.

Get an adblocker? Nothing automatically played with Firefox and uBlock.
- There are countless ways to implement autoplay. You apparently got lucky with one particular toolchain in one situation. Tor Browser is FF based and should not be extended by plugins (as that changes fingerprints), and TB plays whatever junk is on that page.
  Have a look at how long Google has been unable to disable autoplay (2009).
  The maker of Ungoogled Chromium made an autoplay blocker but it had so many failures he abandoned the project hoping Google would have the resources to tackle the problem.

British people are insane. Why are you willingly asking for more government intervention in your daily lives for such a minor annoyance. Y'all do realize they will eventually be caught using this to spy on people.

Fuck it. I'm tired of being woken up by the sound of machine guns and grenades.

ITT: Boomers saying the equivalent of "Stay off my lawn!"

Fuck this. Freedom has costs, a few seconds of noise ain't a big deal

A single loud exhaust can wake up 10,000 people. The impact on mental and physical health if this happens a few times a night is immense.
Motorists had their chance to not ruin the world for everyone else, and they failed the test. Time to intervene.
- I'm not saying that it can't be a problem for some people but again that's the cost of freedom people are allowed to make their own choices with what they purchase and what they do. if you don't like that you are totally free to remove yourself from the situation any which way you see fit.
Keep your noise to yourself dipshit. Get a life beyond your motor vehicle and stop inflicting your bullshit on the populace you inconsiderate garbage.
- What are your hobbies so we can call you a cunt for having them?
- yeah go ahead and jump to conclusions... just because I support people's rights to make their own decisions about what they own and what they do doesnt mean I do those things myself
@sturmblast @Mex
Freedom has costs: fitting a silencer or using a quiet vehicle is not a big deal.

Rip car enthusiasts.

Leave it to the uk to make everyone a criminal.

Come on mate, you can have a performance car without flooring it in a residential area to show off like a knob
Aka entitled shits.