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Comment by bluetomcat | Hacker News Reader

Blame Jeremy Clarkson and the car culture he fostered. For decades, new and old cars were judged by their ability to spin their wheels around a test track, and by the loudness of their exhaust heard inside a tunnel.

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Blaming Clarkson for loud cars is like blaming videogames for mass shootings. Car yobs, and the tuning culture, existed way before Top Gear became popular entertainment, but is nearly as old as the invention of the automobile.

Also, here's some AI generated Top Gear to give you nightmares: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYWCIJgw610

I'm a Brit (living in Germany) and I think it's much more related to our hatred of rule-following, combined with austerity. I am still surprised at how rebellious people are in the UK. During COVID, I barely saw any police confront those who weren't wearing masks. When I moved to Hamburg, the transport security would stand at the stations and if they saw someone asleep on the S-Bahn with their mask falling off they would go on the train and berate them. One funny thing was getting the S-Bahn from the airport, all the Brits would not be wearing masks even though you were required to by law. They would keep it up for about 3 stops before getting scared at all the staring and putting their masks on. Frankly, it's just a very different world. In the UK, it genuinely seems like the police are often too scared to confront anti-social behaviour. This is not so in mainland Europe

On the other hand, when I leave London to visit Vienna or Berlin or Frankfurt and I see a dozen Germanophones standing motionless at a crossing with a red light for pedestrians, but there is not a single car in sight, I think what on earth is wrong with these lemmings, do they have no brain of their own?

There's a balance to be had, and I would suggest neither Germany nor Austria nor the UK has it right.

This one gets me as my partner is German. She gets annoyed when I walk when there's a red crossing light. There's no damn cars ffs, just go.

> but there is not a single car in sight, I think what on earth is wrong with these lemmings, do they have no brain of their own?

We have more than enough bored cops that love to annoy people both on feet and on bike with red-light tickets in quiet areas. For pedestrians it's just annoying with a 5€ "fine", but for bicyclists or e-scooter drivers it means a strike in your driver's license.

When people behave in a way you expect it creates a more harmonious society

> This is not so in mainland Europe

I see you haven't visited the Netherlands, where what you're describing is even worse than the UK.

I always see red lights as a bet, you raise the rest of your life time, to win a couple of minutes, to me always seemed like an easy decision to make

There’s a marked difference between a performance car with an aggressive exhaust under wide open throttle and a modified economy car with a stupid loud exhaust under normal driving.

Even the super cars have to obey noise regulations. The modified cars can be 10-20dB louder, which is a lot.

I’d blame the people doing that, not the one who makes a show, it is not because I like cars and like to run them on tracks I am responsible for those who drive modified cars in urban areas

Monkey see Monkey do though

The problem is monkeys

Oh come on. He’s a terrible person, loud cars are a freaking nuisance, but to claim that he’s the reason everyone from Thai teenagers to Georgian gangsters to Emirati chammaks[0] is removing their muffler because of him is bizarrely and myopically Anglocentric.

0: choosing countries I’m familiar with

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