Wednesday 22nd October 2008

The Art Of Noise

Yet another camera for the roadside

---

With not much happening between BBQs, Australian politicians are worse than our lot when it comes to dreaming up ways to harass their sun-struck motorists.

Not content with blazing the global trail for speed cameras, the Aussie PC brigade are now poised to deploy noise cameras across their road network – begging the obvious question, when will they arrive here?

The fully automated systems have been in development for the last three years and are now set to be rolled out in several states and territories down under. According to a report in Australia’s The Newspaper, the camera-based system utilises a set of microphones to record noise levels and, when the set threshold is exceeded, a ten second video is stored and a ticket automatically generated. Apparently the machine can hold data for up to 10,000 tickets before it needs to be reset.

There’s one crumb of comfort for fellow fans of a sporty exhaust note – the current technology is apparently only reliable between 41F and 104 degrees so may not yet be suited to many European environments. But you can bet the system developer Acoustic Research Labs of New South Wales will be working to fix that.

[craigmscott]

that is ridiculous!

[tegwin]

WTF!....That has to be a joke...

They cant tell me that "noise kills"...

What they should be doing is deploying more police to deal with the dustbin clio'd exhaustpipe bregade rather than just trying to rape us for more money!

[noumenon]

Another chance to fine the public - the new Aussie way.

[Mr Gear]

What if a lorry is heading in the opposite direction adding to the noise?

[tomTVR]

You can imagine village busy bodies across the country rubbing their hands with glee

[Gun]

Mr Gear said:

What if a lorry is heading in the opposite direction adding to the noise?

Thats a good point, how could they determine which vehicle is causing the noise if there are two going in opposite directions?

[Seademon]

Great news! Looks like I'll be fitting the standard exhaust back on my bike then...

Maybe not!

[WorAl]

Im going to be the little tw@t that sits with my exhaust right next to them, revving the nuts off my car when someone drives past

[E21_Ross]

WorAl said:

Im going to be the little tw@t that sits with my exhaust right next to them, revving the nuts off my car when someone drives past

gotta say what a ridiculous scheme though

[Kozy]

WorAl said:

Im going to be the little tw@t that sits with my exhaust right next to them, revving the nuts off my car when someone drives past

I'll raise you as the tt that burns these things down if they ever surface here.

[tomTVR]

This is obviously another jealously/fun tax on people who have loud and fast cars or bikes. It must be, cant be about noise pollution because the vast majority or cars on the road have pretty quiet exhaust. Infact road noise from the tyres is far louder yet these things cant possibly be set up for tyre noise because everyone would get pulled. Hence fun tax.

[cej]

WorAl said:

Im going to be the little tw@t that sits with my exhaust right next to them, revving the nuts off my car when someone drives past

[RB Will]

Oh dear. A camers bikers will actually have to worry about.

[neh321]

They have clearly forgotten what they are there for and who pays their wages.

The only answer is mass protest: refuse the pay the fines!

[dpbird90]

What another stupid way of getting hands on our hard earned. Noisy cars do not cause any trouble at all, apart from making old people and hippies quite annoying to the rest of us. Loud pipes save lives, if you can hear it coming full whack, you ain't going to be walking out into the road, then you will not be ran down, becoming just another statistic the government will inevitably lie about.
If this idea ever gets over here, I am sure many of us will become very good customers of B&Q, and they will have to order lots more hacksaws in...

[R3UMP]

Is there a law against noise from exhausts anyway? There is never (to my knowledge) a noise check at MoT time. It seems silly that on certain racetracks many cars exceed their noise levels and are not allowed on the circuit, yet the same cars can be used on the road.

[aji621]

if these start poping up over here, my spoon n1 may cause a bit of a problem. ha.

[shadowninja]

neh321 said:

They have clearly forgotten what they are there for and who pays their wages.

The only answer is mass protest: refuse the pay the fines!

In this country? Doubt it.

[WorAl]

Kozy said:

WorAl said:

Im going to be the little tw@t that sits with my exhaust right next to them, revving the nuts off my car when someone drives past

I'll raise you as the tt that burns these things down if they ever surface here.

You do the south ill do the north.

[Gun]

WorAl said:

Im going to be the little tw@t that sits with my exhaust right next to them, revving the nuts off my car when someone drives past

And every time a G-Wizz or Pious drives past, red line it just to make sure!