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Comment by tothrowaway | Hacker News Reader

The cars, trucks and motorcycles with booming exhaust pipes are insufferable. I despise hearing them revving by. I feel like I'm crazy for how much it bothers me. But then I read a story about a man shooting a driver who was just revving up and down his street, so I'm not alone.

I spent a week in Helsinki, and was blown away by how quiet it was despite being far more dense than my city.

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NotJustBikes does a great video on this https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8

Cities aren't Loud, Cars are Loud.

Most "cities" in North America, to use the term generously, are miserable car sewers where you need to shout to have a conversation outside.

I had to move because of the motorcycles. I literally couldn’t take it anymore. Too many nights being woken up at 2am. Those people don’t care about anyone but themselves.

Same here. We lived in a grid system suburb where the roads next to us were used all hours of the day by cars. There was a constant stream of illegally modified trucks screaming past us and waking us up all hours of the night.

I so relate. I was once able to test drive a Audi R8 Spyder because the agency I work for works for Audi.

The motor sound isn't anything near quiet. Far from it. But I was astounded to find a button that enables a loud motor sound function.

With this button pressed the sound makes a lot of bikes sound like child toys. I really don't understand how one needs to show off in such a fashion and explicitly expressing a loud (pun intended) f** you to the rest of the world.

Insecurity, lack of self-awareness, lack of support

Victims of Stockholm syndrome. They were conditioned to associate the pleasure of effortless movement - such as you get silently on a sailboat or downhill skiing or biking - with the noise of internal combustion contraptions.

Good thing the end of those is in sight.

Ugh, there is one dude in my town with this beat up old Civic with what sounds like a literal tin can for an exhaust, and the engine is tuned so badly that it backfires every time he shifts, which he does at the bend by my house. Which of course sets the dogs barking.

All I'm saying is, I kinda commiserate with the guy in that story.

Europe in general seems to have far less of that particular kind of jackassery. Better enforcement? Or are people just more considerate?

"Loud pipes save lives"

ugh

Yeah, especially at 11:30 at night as they loudly rev their bikes with a grin at. every. damned. stop. sign.

Really, do they have to? They can't just give it a little throttle to get it moving, they have to open it all the way unsettling the whole neighborhood with the exhaust noise when it's otherwise quiet and there are few cars?

They kinda do. About 30% of people only feel they're winning when they see someone else worse off (even at cost to themselves), so the knowledge that they're annoying people actively gives them life.

If I was a cop, I would make it my sole mission to ticket each and every one all day long.

It would be especially sweet if it was a motorcycle cop writing those tickets. Though if I were a cop, I wouldn't want to be a motorcycle cop because they have a higher fatality rate.

As a motorcyclist, I'm firmly in the camp about quiet, stock pipes.

If I was dictator, I would impound and destroy any vehicle that was too loud.

Also any that have too bright headlights. Crush directly into a cube. And then fine the owner if he doesn't move his cube.

Brightness isn’t necessarily the problem if they are pointed at the correct angle. Lights within spec are annoyingly blinding if set too high.

I dont get why police dont take quality of life crimes more seriously like that. Like if you have a noise problem there is no reason to call the police, they won't show up. What are we paying them for? To write up documents for crimes that happen after the fact?

It's because the police serve the interests of the owning class, and so prioritize things such as corporate property damage and the ability for workers to get to their jobs.

Note that loud exhaust is not an issue in more affluent neighborhoods...

I've been told the number of people driving with loud exhaust is a function of how close you are to the nearest meth house. This is after adjusting the data for level of travel a given road or nearby road

Wow. Cool. Do you have any data on that?

I live near a school (equivalent to middle as well as high school). The rest is a purely residential area.

I feel that living near a school in the morning with mommy driving little Kevin to school in big SUV and little Kevin's older brother revving his engine as much as he can with his car comes probably somewhat close.

This is a perfect example of why cops should be paid more. If you could be convinced to be a cop the world would be a better place.

This is the exact attitude that should be tested for and taken as "going to be a bad cop".

My late grandfather was a psychiatric expert doing psych evaluation of candidates for armed forces. His method was largely just chatting with the person for a few minutes and asking general questions. Even that revealed a lot. He didn't tell a lot about the people specifically, he took confidentiality very seriously, but could tell there where a lot of freaks applying, a notable candidate with a straight up American history X nazi tattoo.

I looked into this claim a while ago, and actual research on the subject is equivocal at best. Most often, drivers don't even notice the sound on an already-noisy road or highway, through deliberately sound-dampening windows, over music and conversation, etc. Even if they notice, they don't necessarily know where it's coming from. Even if they know where it's coming from, it doesn't necessarily influence their actions. Some people who say "loud pipes save lives" are just fooling themselves. More often, people who say it know it's not likely to be true, but they say it anyway to put a veneer of respectability over the fact that they like the sound and don't care if it's annoying to others.

I roll my window up if I'm near motorcycles. There's been too many times when my ear got blasted all of a sudden.

Worse is booming bass. Not while driving, but at home from the neighbors. Hours on end... boom... boom...

Yup, that's why I'm building a house as far away from others as physically possible.

You are not alone at all, some of us just accept that shooting people is illegal, even if they deserve to be shot, and just continue to suffer in silence.

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