Photo credit: Xavier Lubeigt licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies
According to the article by Tom Andrews, the Santa Fe City Council has received information that aggressive driving violates city ordinances and the rights of citizens “to quiet enjoyment.” While the citizens of Santa Fe, according to this article, want traffic laws enforced and the Santa Fe County had received 23 noise complaints, no citations followed these complaints. Andrews wrote that he called to complain about noise violations but he has not yet heard back.
Andrews believes that Santa Fe can employ noise and speed cameras to ticket violations and police, while they do not have noise meters, can still issue tickets for loud mufflers according to the existing ordinance. He also notes that there are jurisdictions that do indeed inspect muffler noise. Andrews argues that greater attention must be paid to the vehicle noise issue by noting that loud noises “are painful.”
With the abundance of literature linking noise to adverse mental and physical health problems, I wish he had added some of these studies to his article that would have made his case seeking ways to reduce traffic noise even stronger.
