SECOND NOISIEST CITY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21939, 13 November 1936, Page 10

SECOND NOISIEST CITY

SYDNEY’S REPUTATION CAMPAIGN FOR ABATEMENT OF NUISANCE (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, November 2. Sydney has the reputation of being the noisiest city in Australia and the second noisiest city in the world, according to Mr R. R. Allison, secretary of the Noise Abatement League. The narrow and busy Pitt street has been called “Hell’s Mile.” he said, and the term might well be applied to other streets. , . , . - . Trams are the chief cause of Sydney’s bad reputation. Building operations, noisy drills, and motor horns rank next in order of public nuisances. which, it is claimed, are making Sydney a nerve-wracking city m which to live. , .. “New York has been voted the noisiest city in the world, with its elevated railways in addition to other noise factors,” said Mr Allison. “Sydney, however, has been having overhead railways thrust upon it lately. First there was the overhead line from Central station to Goulburn street, and then came the Bridge railway. The league fears that the overhead railway

now being built at Circular quay win create a tremendous amount of din.’ In its campaign to suppress noise the league has also complained to the Sydney County Council that the pneumatic drills with which workmen have been tearing up the streets to lay new electricity mains and construct new sub-stations are one of the chief causes of the city noise. The county council replied that its London representatives had a standing order to purchase any silent drill that came on to the market. Action has been taken by individuals in courts to restrain by injunction excessive noises in building construction. In an endeavour to overcome the problem of motor horns, the league has suggested to the manufacturers of car parts that they should try to make horns with more harmony and less blare in them.

"Noisy motor-cycles are our chief trouble in the suburbs,” said Mr Allison. “The young people who ride on them seem to be Impervious to noise and don’t consider other pdbple. We have asked the Police Department to enforce the regulations governing loud exhausts, and have also suggested that the penalties for this offence be increased. Trouble has also been caused by radio sets, but the local councils exercise the powers they have to restrain this. We have suggested to. the Local Government Department that the powers of councils to deal with unreasonable noises be increased.”