To want tougher punishments for noisy cars

[Dappy777]

In this hot weather I have my bedroom windows wide open. Every single night I am woken by noisy cars and motorbikes. Last night I was woken up at 1am, 5:30am and then again at six. The noise is so loud and piercing that even earplugs don’t help. The engines screech when they accelerate, and then the exhausts pop and bang when they slow down. It’s driving me f-ing mad.

WHY do people do this? WHY do they modify their vehicles to make so much noise? And WHY do they then drive around night? Do they get a kick out of upsetting people? Is it spite? Or is it just that they like the attention? I can hear them right now as I type.😡

Everything sounds louder at night.

@Dappy777 there aren't any punishments at all that I can see

and yes, I think they do get a kick out of upsetting people.

I really feel for you. Are they on your street?

I had a lot more of that in my London flat than I do here thank goodness. However, they do use the nearest main road. It's partly about racing and partly about showing off with the noise. It's always in the middle of the night. I'm a bad sleeper so I tend to hear it.

Also, I don't know that times of night are that significant in that I think these people do it all day. Utter wankers.

I was waiting at a busy bus stop in London, one of those places where there are two bus stops together because there are lots of routes going off it

One car came along with such a heavily modified engine, and I don't know what he did to it but it suddenly made it such a huge noise, everyone at both bus stops jumped in the air

there was a choice selection of words yelled after him. That was probably about 9 pm on a summer evening

could see him laughing in the car. Because he couldn't actually go fast and get far so we could see him.

They think that they are driving high powered race cars when in fact they are driving a shitty little 1.2 Fiesta with 4D plates. It’s the latest chav craze that will hopefully die of death very soon

I’m sure they enjoy it. I wish I could understand what is going on in their minds. I get that some people like cars and motorbikes. And that’s fine. If you work hard and save your money, then go for it. Buy a classic car, or your dream bike, and enjoy. But why tamper with it so it makes hideous screeching, exploding sounds?

I suspect part of it is sheer nastiness - a pleasure in waking people up or making them jump, etc. But I suspect others just like the attention. You know, like some horrible little kid who shouts and throws things until everyone looks at him.

No, not on my street. In fact, I think some of them are at least a mile away, which just shows you how loud they are. We live in the countryside, on the edge of a town, and they fly up and down the main road into that town.

The police just do nothing. It’s like they’ve decided they can’t be bothered to stop them. No one is expecting them to divert massive resources, but if they’d just stop one or two and fine them, news would spread on the idiot grapevine.

Presumably the cars have been modified? Therefore, invalid insurance.

YANBU

NDN is bad enough with his Mercedes with a loud engine (which makes a lovely noise when he reverses off the driveway at 6:10 am every day 😠). I really cannot fathom why anyone would modify their car to make it louder!

To be fair, the widespread expansion in leases means plenty of the boy racers are driving genuinely fast cars, a recipe for disaster.

As a motorbiker, I do kind of defend loud cans: so many drivers aren’t like looking out for bikes (even though mine is bright red) that being heard and attracting drivers’ attention can literally be a lifesaver. Modified car exhausts - yeah, I agree pretty indefensible in urban areas.

Why dont we do what they do in Germany and require all car mods to be approved by a qualified engineer.

I suggest we need much stricter rules about all car modifications

There are now some 'noise cameras' to pick up modified vehicles, we need more and sieze and crush modified vehicles

They're just thick twats - no other explanation needed.

Unfortunately dickheads seem to be growing exponentially as a group, at least I won't be too sad to go when it's my time to pop my clogs, they will prob have completely taken over by then 🙄

I agree about the stricter rules. Personally, I think we need much tougher rules on noise pollution, full stop. It ruins lives. I have known two different people driven to suicide attempts by noisy neighbours. And I had a work colleague who ended up on anti-depressants because of a noisy drug addict who moved in next door.

I feel your pain . We struggle with this aswell , it’s so jarring and inconsiderate

I hope one day the UK operate the Australia/New Zealand system (can’t remember which one it is), where cars aren’t allowed to be modified beyond manufacture and can’t have after market exhausts etc. The modifications we have in the UK serve no purpose apart from making everyone other than the idiot driving miserable. My lovely neighbours moved yesterday because of a dickhead like this. Every night his modified car sounds like a gunshot and would terrify their little boy. They asked him to be more mindful and stop the excessive revving but got nothing but abuse, so they left. Such a shame as good neighbours are so hard to come by nowadays.

As someone else has said, there are noise cameras. I reckon a fine proportionate to the number of people disturbed would not be inappropriate - which would generally be the full value of the vehicle, given how loud many of them are… What justification can there possibly be for something so antisocial?

I have a noisier than average classic car. It’s completely standard - no mods, no farts or bangs, just a low throb. Like a Ferrari or Lamborghini.

You’ll have all electric cars soon enough and will be complaining about the number of people
hurt or injured when they don’t hear them coming.

(have had it and the neighbours for over 20 years and never had any complaints about it.)

There needs to be more stringent curbs on noise in general, from loud music, barking dogs, shouting, fireworks and noisy cars and motorbikes.

I assume it’s not Australia as I was in Hobart (Tasmania) recently staying in a lovely quiet hotel on the harbour. Sat night turned into some form of torture around midnight-1am as the local “hoons” (as my Aussie friend called them) started racing their modified cars around the harbour front for hours. 😡

Petition: Increase penalties for motor vehicles that exceed legal noise pollution levels

We ask the UK Government to introduce stricter penalties for excessive vehicle noise, including modified loud exhaust systems and unnecessary use of car horns during night hours. Excessive noise from vehicles is a growing problem in many communities across the UK.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/767984

Can I add kids that scream for no reason to that list.

Above a certain decibel should be an instant MOT failure.

The souped up exhausts have been around for ages and as a fad doesn't look like they're going away soon.

It's irritating but understandable when it's a 1.2l fiesta driven someone who's just got their licence. Enraging when it's a 3l Audi with tinted windows driven by someone old enough to know better.

I live off a main road and empathise with the OP.

I think this is another effect of how much road policing has gone down the pan in the years that I have been driving. Back in the dark ages when I learned to drive there were lots of real live trained traffic cops who could exercise discretion and who had the experience to spot subtler signs of sub standard driving. These days if it can't be prosecuted via a camera it doesn't seem to count. The only time in my life I have ever been pulled over for speeding I got a stern talking to but was then sent on my way but it did actually modify my behaviour, both immediately and in the long term. These days I would have just got a bill in the post two weeks later.
Lane discipline is practically non existent now and I regularly see things like cars towing trailers in the outside lane and ridiculously overloaded or modified vehicles - all things that traffic police would spot and hopefully act on. But they are are rarity these days, where I live anyway, it's cameras and civilian traffic officers who don't fulfil the same role. I guess it costs too much but I'd be happy to see more of my taxes spent on putting actual police officers back out on the roads. I think people break more rules these days because they know there's very little chance of being caught unless they're speeding past a camera.

Excessive noise, absolutely.

Complete silent cars or bike would be insanely dangerous.

We also need very heavy fines for idling idiots, who leave the engine running for ever, with a special premium tax when it's within distance of a school. Lazy parents who turn up 30mn early to have a space to save them from walking 50 meters and need they engine on because they are too lazy to open a window in the summer, or put a jumper in the winter

They are not the only one, but are still so unpleasant.