NOISY DRIVERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 January 1929, Page 13

NOISY DRIVERS.

EXCESSIVE USE OF HORNS

MENACE TO NERVES

The following article, which is taken from “Life,’’ will not doubt lie found interesting, for numerous complaints have been made from time to time of the nuisance caused to the public, especially at night, by the unnecessary sounding of motor horns. There is a growing feeling that something must be done to lessen the noise of the streets, especially at night, for there is an increasing number of motorists who either take a delight in disturbing the sleep of their lellow-beings or who are so selfish that it never occurs to them that to drive through town or country with their horns emitting raucous noises at every cross road is to constitute themselves into a public nuisance. Besides "being a nuisance, the practice is injurious to health, and at the recent meeting of the British Medical Association at Cardiff a resolution was passed declaring the Association’s readiness to support any measure empowering local authorities to suppress unnecessary noises. Absolute silence is, of course, out of the question, but as the lights of the car can be seen many yards ahead late at night, the blaring of the motor horns could be considerably lessened. THE, DOCTOR’S VIEW. Proposing the resolution, Dr. John Steven, of "Edinburgh, said: “Noises and vibrations are in the main those largely mechanical, which advancing civilisation has thrust upon us, particularly in town life. These change greatly as time goes on, but the changes in the aggregate are mainly in the wrong direction. Even if a fine Rolls-Royce goes almost noiselessly along our much-improved roads we suffer a new shock to our nerves and terror to our lives conveyed by the sounding of its horn . . . “Motors- of all kinds are intruding everywhere; could not the horn of the motor be less used at night? In the dark the lights give warning of approach before there is any need of noise. Could not a uniform sound more musical and pleasant than is usual be utilised?” The, “Manchester Guardian,” in a leader, points out that on the Continent steps have already been taken. “The Paris Prefect of Police, for instance, has just framed rules to compel motorists who drive in the city between 1 and 5 a.m. to negotiate crossings by slowing down and not by hooting. The mayor of a Belgian commune goes farther. He lias simplj posted at the entrances to his district a notice which warns those who make a needless racket in going through it that the unsleeping ears of the law will be quick to hear them, and that the penalties will be heavy. “These are brave gestures on the part of autnority, and we could all wish that they might achieve thenpurpose. But while a conviction or two for needless noise might temporarily have a deterrent effect, it would need only a few crashes begotten of silent driving at cross-roads to discredit the remedy. Surely a better plan is to reduce and standardise any necessary night sounds.

SUGGESTED REMEDIES. “The loud exhaust is an obvious mark for strict penalisation. Might not the more hideously sounding of motor horns be similarly curbed? For night purposes, if not. for all, a low, sweet trumpet note would serve as well as the yelping, cat-calls, screeches and the rest that murder sleep and make the day horrible.” “In many cities, offices which abut upon a main thoroughfare,” says the ■‘Yorkshire Post,” “are forced to remain unfreshened by new air because the- opening of a window means such a roar and a rattle that no conversation is possible. “Even with all windows dosed the noise obtrudes itself, and it is augmented by the indoor noises which modern invention lias forced upon ns. Typewriters click, telephone bells ring, patent carriers rattle, and a variety of other devices are responsible for drawers which slide home with a whirr or doors which clang. “When the worker returns to his oilier home noise does not cease. Motorcycles with gun-like exhausts, cars moan or roar or hum or rattle as they pass, hooters, hells and syrens, the massed shouting of sport-watching enthusiasts, street breakers with drills, and tramway servants with instruments for ironing out the tram lines, dogs that yap and bark, cats that wail, homing topers who sing or quarrel—only a Walt Whitman could adequately catalogue the various assaults upon the tympans of suburban humanity.” “That excessive noise is bad for healtli would seem to be certain,” points out the “Morning Post,” “and it is little consolation to learn that statisticians estimate the loss in working efficiency due to unnecessary noise at a million pounds a week. There are laws and regulations for a thousand trivial harmless incidents. “A rod of iron directs our lives from morning till night, and the multitude of inspectors is past numbering; yet it appears that there is no authority to ordain tranquility, even when the majority of peaceful citizens are trying to sleep. It was in another sense that Mr. Baldwin called for peace in our time; hut surely his ideal might he extended.”

VIEWS OF FRENCH DOCTORS. 4 "The nerve-racking noise of the modern cities is filling the hospitals with nervous and mental cases,’’ sajs the Paris correspondent of the “Daily Mail.”

“This is the opinion of eminent specialists who have been consulted by the Prefect of Police with a view to taking steps to end the abuse of motor-horns, open exhausts, and other factors that contribute to make the Paris of to-day a perfect Bedlam. M. Gemil-Pernn, chief medical officer of the Seine Asylums Boards, said: There is no question about the deleterious effect of street noises upon our nerves. Ihe sense of hearing is suddenly fatigued by the innumerable sounds which do not even cease to affect it during sleep.’ ‘The two senses which are the most overworked in our modern cities,’ said Dr. Manage, Professor of Physics of the Faculty of Science, ‘are sight and hearing. Hearing is a mpre serious matter even than sight, for it is subjected to a. much greater strain, and the. constant strain on the hearing quickly brings about grave nervous disorders.’

“According to Professor Janet, of the College de France: ‘We are spending our life store of nervous energy m prodigal fashion. We- no longer o-b----serbo normal hours for work and rest in our noisy cities. We spend more nervous energy than we can afford, and if wo do not take care it will he: our ruin.’ ”

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