A search for Britain’s noisiest streets has been launched by the Department for Transport, with 4 areas set to trial new technology to help stop rowdy motorists from revving their engines unnecessarily or using illegal exhausts.
MPs are being invited to submit applications to trial new innovative noise cameras in their local area, helping to ensure communities can enjoy their public and residential spaces peacefully.
The technology, backed by £300,000, can automatically detect when vehicles are breaking legal noise requirements, helping provide Police and local authorities with the tools and evidence to take action against drivers who flout noise laws. Police have existing powers, including the ability to issue fines, but currently have trouble gathering evidence.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said:
“We want those in Britain’s noisiest streets, who are kept up at night by unbearable revving engines and noisy exhausts, to come forward with the help of volunteer areas to test and perfect the latest innovative technology.
“For too long, rowdy drivers have been able to get away with disturbing our communities with illegal noisy vehicles. It’s time we clamp down on this nuisance, banish the boy racer and restore peace and quiet to local streets.”
Research shows noise pollution can have significant impacts on physical and mental health for local residents – with heart attacks, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and stress all linked to long-term contact with loud environments.
Excessive noise pollution can mean children struggle to get a good night’s sleep and hardworking people’s lives are made more stressful. In England alone, the annual social cost of urban road noise was estimated to be up to £10billion a decade ago. This is the total economic cost of exposure to noise pollution, including lost productivity from sleep disturbance and health costs from heart attacks, strokes and dementia.
Complaints about noise are highest among the most economically deprived areas, with those in more disadvantaged areas 3x as likely to suffer from noise nuisance.
The Isle of Wight’s MP, Bob Seely, has been pushing for greater policing of the Island’s roads in recent months, so this invitation to apply on behalf of the Island may well be of interest…
I thought it was May 3rd today, not April 1st. How does noise cause diabetes exactly?
Studies have reported an association between exposure to high noise levels and the activation of stress hormones such as cortisol, which reduces pancreatic insulin secretion and decreases insulin sensitivity throughout the body, leading to increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
So do HGVs. Ban them and throttle the Island economy.
Island Echo Scientist
Love the sound of a nice exhaust
In many cases this technology is quite unnecessary, a standard pair of ears will do the job. I can hear it all going on from my garden near the centre of Newport. The Police Station must have quadruple glazing if the occupants can’t hear the speed limits being broken on Medina Way
Maybe they should put one next to the sausage or in the High street 😉
What utter nonsense. I’ve never heard such utter bunkum in my life. Diabetes? Strokes? Dementia? Bob Seeley won’t get my vote next time. Just leave decent people alone!! Let them enjoy life. If you live next to a busy road, what do you expect? Will you ban HGVs? No, of course not. They can cause real damage to infrastructure. I thought we were encouraging Road Race events on the Island? This is just any excuse to hammer the motorist.
Why so over the top? People usually don’t ‘choose’ to live in a noisy street, but the cost of accommodation is lower there. So they have no choice to be sitting ducks to unnecessary levels of noise. It certainly does cause stress, sleeplessness, respiratory problems, ashma, mental health stress. And greater levels of pollution in such areas are part of the picture, causing illness. Don’t be selfish.
Sort out up top of staplers please.after the dual carriageway ovb.thats redik loud!
Yes, yes, yes. Bloody exhausts on cars and bikes have been getting louder and louder over the years. So glad something is in place to try and catch these idiots who think a loud exhaust sounds ‘good’
I fail to believe these fatherless daddy-issue chavs change their exhausts at MOT time so action at the test could largely solve this. Also what was the recent BS nonsense about stopping untaxed vehicles? DVLA know what cars aren’t taxed yet they take zero action against those drivers. Oh they will state that they do in general rhetoric but submit a Freedom of Information request asking how many times they have pursued untaxed drivers in any named region and they will refuse to supply the information.
clearly then, as usual, this is just another old puff ball of meaningless rhetoric.
Bring it round my way. Theres more non stop yapping dogs than anything else. A loud exhaust would be welcome releif!
Well said old school ,and cars with loud exhausts don’t leave s—t all over the place.
Install the first one on Ryde Esplanade, unless there is actual enforcement the whole thing is a pointless exercise.
Of course the police have trouble collecting evidence, they can’t hear anything in the comfort of their nice warm offices, get out on the roads and earn your wages.
Great idea
Let’s have it on trial.
Will upset the island ford owners in there Rs and St popping exhausts.
Hilliarious let’s get it in before the “Ford takeover”
Friday nights is chav boy racers nights when they have their pocket money, it’s scary sometimes on the Downs when they take such risks & stick their fingers up to everyone as no one Polices it. Why do we have so many boy racers on the Island ? They think they look cool but actually they don’t have a brain cell between them !
The money would be better spent removing old drivers from the road who can’t see
starting with you…
Your an idiot should be “Has Bean”
Ban the chicken chasers with the loud deep exhausts, can hear em for ages on a calm day,
What we need is technology to reduce our fatalities not noise.
Reducing the speed limit on certain parts of the busy roads would go some way to reducing a number of the high percentage of accidents we have been having indeed some areas with the national speed limit ie some of our country lanes would help they’re not motorways are they…. though the speed some go down them makes you wonder …..
Would be wonderful to stop the one motorbike that rides like a twat down Well st.. then along Monkton street, revving popping banging… people like this think it is funny ? Why ?? Do they think it is good for the engine ? A quiet exhaust gives better back pressure, make the engine perform properly, and the output is higher from low to midrange.. and you would be insured !!
As has been said already, perhaps the exhaust noise level needs to be part of the MOT check. The worrying thing is that I’d guess that most of these people with loud exhausts on their cars and bikes have invalidated their insurance because they haven’t informed their insurer about the modifications and are therefore driving without insurance.
dead right and if caught with invalidated insurance crush the car or bike, problem solved.
Take their driving licences away, for life, ban them from ever getting in or on a vehicle ever again. Then crush their vehicles, getting them to pay for the crushing. Every time when I hear these vehicles, always wonder how many gears they got? Always keep going up and up. Even on short roads, where you know they have to stop eventually, but they don’t. As they are going up through the gears, it reminds me of the Antique Roadshow TV programme theme.
Great so now how am I going to drive my classic Ferrari with its totally standard factory fitted exhaust?
How loud is it? Have you had it measured? I suspect the noise is a lot less than the idiot that rides up and down St Johns hill on his 125 with a megaphone as an exhaust.
Guess the Police will have to turn those sirens off too
The funny thing is, these people putting loud exhausts on their cars, they are loosing power. A performance exhaust only has a benefit after you have built a race engine. Adding an after market air filter and larger injectors with a remap will have a much bigger affect on performance. The stock exhaust s more than enough. Al you’re doing is advertising to the police that you love to break the speed limit. It’s been shown many times by tuning experts that removing a CAT and fitting larger bore exhausts robs low end torque and only adds power at the top end when the engine has been built to exceed the factory rev limit.
ISLE OF WIGHT NEEDS TO TRIAL NEW TECHNOLOGY TO BANISH corrupt councillors dodgy planning department