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Comment by Tade0 | Hacker News Reader

I don't mind cosmetics, but noise is something some places fortunately started regulating and I hope it becomes more common:

https://nltimes.nl/2026/05/28/rotterdam-deploys-first-noise-...

I'm hearing someone gunning it through a neighboring road as I type this comment and I will be hearing such noise all night, because some people just can't help but make noise.

The other day I even saw a guy in a car with a modified exhaust and driver side window rolled down - apparently so that he would better hear the noise he's making. Considering the volume that had to have a negative effect on his hearing.

I don't understand and I will not understand.

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I’m at the point where I don’t just want ticketing and other enforcement on this front, I want yanked licenses for this after a warning, and I might even want it legal to shoot vehicles guilty of noise violations and their drivers with paintballs to mark them for further enforcement and shame.

Smoking is the atmospheric equivalent of peeing in the pool; noise pollution is something between that and opting everyone into your dumb M80 party. It’s antisocial, it causes health problems on top of discomfort, and it should stop.

Sure, but as long as they're allowed to paintball you and sick draconian enforcement on you for whatever trivial things you do they deem to be slights against society.

Like FFS, it's just fucking noise. It's a small minority of people. Can we just ignore them? There's so much bigger problems. Most people grow out of it after one car like that.

If we could ignore them, this thread would not exist.

and I support extra legal measures against these people. They do it for the attention and they deserve the attention they will have coming to them.

In Seattle they had a guy in Belltown being a nuisance with a loud charger at all hours of the night in an urban setting. They knew who he was and he lived with his mom (lol). I never understood why the community didn’t deal with it when the police would not. Lack of enforcement is what leads to vigilantism.

>I never understood why the community didn’t deal with it when the police would not.

Because if you are the one who actually has to do the violence rather than outsourcing it to the state it becomes clear this isn't a subject worth that violence.

Put yourself in the shoes of the guy who has to do the pistol whipping. Unless you've got a badge and a state paycheck and can just blindly live with your actions as "it's muh job" and know that just about everyone will agree it's just not worth it.

Hence why only the state ever applies violence over such subjects.

I think it’s cameras. I used to know people who took these matters into their own hands with baseball bats to the offending vehicle at 3 in the morning. But that was many years ago where if there were any witnesses they’d be glad some blue collar kind of guy got fed up with the noise making nuisance of a car.

When you say enforcement isn't worth it, you end up letting the most inconsiderate people with some of the worst decision making set the tone for society.

It's also pretty likely that the state violence will be a threat rather than a literal pistol whipping. Harder for the vigilante to make that work.

>you end up letting the most inconsiderate people with some of the worst decision making set the tone for society.

How's that different than letting complainers send state violence enforce stuff that's not a problem worth thinking about to most people?

"that's not a problem worth thinking about to most people?"

Begs the question.

Its not "just noise" when its preventing people from actually sleeping.

I don't think you'd like it if people played deafeningly loud noises outside your bedroom window at all hours of the night every night forever.

I live just uphill of a state highway junction so I get to hear everything accelerating leaving that intersection.

It's really not bad. You don't even notice it after awhile unless it's something that sounds funny like a semi trailer with an out of round tire or like a cluster of motorcyles or a mazda rotary or a nat-gas powered heavy truck.

What you mean is "it's really not bad for me".

Noise pollution is horrible. It is jarring and causes stress (health issues), and poor sleep (health issues).

This isn't just a vague immaterial thing, this is a genuine negative impact on people's health and by extension life expectation. If people could "just ignore it", obviously they would, right? Some of us can't. Luckily I moved away from most noise and live in a quiet area now, but nothing is stopping some arsehole with a modified exhaust driving down my road every night. It could start happening at any point. At which point, I'd want laws to stop it happening.

May you be cursed with chaotic noise til the end of your days

> It's a small minority of people

So are serial killers. A small minority of people can affect the lives and health of a lot more. A handful of people roaring through a neighborhood at night like this can mean nobody ever gets a proper night's sleep.

If someone plays with a laser in your eye, being told "it's just light, it's one guy, can you just ignore him, he'll grow out of it", won't be a consolation. You'll want him stopped.

> Most people grow out of it after one car like that.

Someone else grows into it.

"Like FFS, it's just fucking noise"

Okay, let me blast 110dB into your ears and you tell me how the fuck you like it.

110dB once a week isn't really a big deal. I don't really care if someone rips it down the highway assuming they aren't being completely reckless.

If I called the county every time someone drove past my house with a loud modded exhaust it would consume my days and nights. The loud exhaust people are a scourge and I would love an easy way to get them to stop.

I hope that becomes more common so long as privacy is respected. Fortunately my neighborhood is fairly quiet.

I don't understand either, but I don't have a problem with people doing what they want. If municipalities can regulate speed limits for safety and other reasons they should be able to.

So if you want to be loud live out in the country where there is space.

I’m having trouble imagining the privacy concern. If someone’s vehicle is topping 90db then it’s hard to argue what they really want is privacy, and even the most invasive monitoring method I can think of (widespread mics) could be nerfed by requiring hardware that only responds at db threshholds well above conversation.

Probably more likely to get harassed in the country for it because the cops gotta fish harder for their extortion money/pay.

Ive been pulled over multiple times with brand new stock exhaust on a stock vehicle cruising at 55 because the body looked old and rusted and the cops were looking for any plausable excuse. With a real excuse they could throw tickets at you when they get frusterated with lack of other possible charges.

>Probably more likely to get harassed in the country for it because the cops gotta fish harder for their extortion money/pay.

Yes and no. Rich places that can trivially afford to over-staff their PD's compared to the amount of "real crime" to go around are some of the worst when it comes to baseless fishing.

When was the last time you saw a cop actually stop a crime? Not respond to one, but prevent a crime? Even their responses to "real crime" are half-hearted in almost every state I've lived in. Many act like I'm imposing on them.

I had a guitar stolen out of my car in the late 90's. It was hot pink, and I was pretty sure that the thief would try to pawn it. So when I spoke with the cop who showed up, I mentioned about checking pawn shops etc. He said "Sounds like a good idea. If you find anything, let us know..."

Completely useless choads...

There is certainly not a rich place, it is dirt poor. Which is why the people make easy targets, they don't have money to throw around for lawyers.

Unfortunately certain choices make you fit a certain profile.

Case in point: police in my region started cracking down on street racing. Original intention was to deal the obvious danger and noise pollution, but it so happened that after each round of checks they would find at least one DUI, suspended license or even a case of drug possession. Naturally they continued, as street racing is somewhat difficult to prove, but the other mentioned offences are much less ambiguous.

Unsurprisingly people who disregard the law don't just settle on a narrow range of offences.

>driver side window rolled down - apparently so that he would better hear the noise he's making

Why would you think that was the case?

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