REDUCING NOISE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 8

REDUCING NOISE

Wellington Wants Less Din and Racket TRAMS WORST CASE Motor-car Exhausts and Hooters Although no one pretends that the noise aud general racket of city life in Wellington are in any degree comparable with the roar and clamour of a metropolis like London, nevertheless there is a pronounced sentiment in this city that there is too much din and that peoples’ nerves would not suffer if a step were taken in the direction of what Great Britain is attempting toward quietening her traffic. Inquiry by a representative of "The Dominion” yesterday revealed no dissentients among a number of people who were interviewed on the suggestion that the streets could be made less, irritating by some attentiou to the problem of lessening the noise. Official quarters have already taken heed of what is being done by the AntiNoise Committee appointed by the Ministry of Transport in England. It was learned that the Wellington city solicitor, Mr. J. O’Shea, and the Commissioner of Transport, Mr. J. S. Hunter, have conferred with a view to the drafting of regulations aimed at needlessly noisy motor-vehicles and clamant drivers. Nothing definite, however, has yet emerged, as the conversations began i just before the holidays.

City’s Noisy Trains.

While it was agreed by the persons whose opinions were sought that unnecessary use of horns could be avoided and that much could be accomplished by the enforcement of regulations governing open exhausts, it was the common view that the chief offenders are the corporation tramcars. Travelling between the high walls of Lambtou Quay, Willis Street, and in Courtenay Place, these contribute heavily to the din of the city. The buildings lining the narrow thoroughfares serve as sopnding boards, amplifying the noise and filling offices aud shop.t with a turmoil of sound that stops only between midnight and early in the morning—hours when city workers gain no benefit from the cessation. The clatter is greatest when the cars are negotiating the points at intersections and junctions. The scream of the bogies making the turn _is strident music and ill becoming to placidity of mind. Inequalities in the track and poorly fixed joints are also the cause of unwarranted noise. Fears on the part of Mr. Speaker that the thunder of the trams might disturb the desired quiet of both Houses of Parliament are understood to be the main reason against the proposal to take the trams through Bowen and Sydney Streets on the projected short cut to the western suburbs. It is reported that the tramways department is prepared to meet the objection by laying the tracks on specially prepared noise eliminating foundations and by providing a new type of car designed with the object of minimising the noise. Carrying Remedy Further, It was pointed out yesterday that if the City Corporation were agreeable to institute a policy overcoming the difficulty on the planned deviation it might carry the idea further step by ■ step, though necessarily over an extended period, throughout all tram routes. The Department ot Transport has no jurisdiction over the corporation as to what it shall do in the abatement of the noise nuisance. Any move will therefore rest with the City Council. , 1 Whetner the use o 1 motor-car hooters called for restriction, an official of the Transport Department stated, was a question to be determined by the commissioner. The feeling of the public at large appeared to favour some measure of control. Whether it could be brought about by a process of education of the thoughtless motorists toward the better consideration of the ears and nerves of other people, or by legislation making indiscriminate honking a punishable offence—as in England—was also a question requiring adequate consideration. More drastic treatment of motorists (motor(yelists in particular) who woke the echoes with open exhausts would be the first and most obvious move toward a quieter Wellington. The Next Door Radio Another medium of blariug colse whose advent within recent years has contributed to the disquiet of modern life is the shouting radio of the person-next-door. Although the misuse of the good things of the ether is generally a neighbourhood affair and often settled in neighbourly ways, the private wireless receiver has earned attention from civic authorities in more than one city overseas. The time may come when it may call for some regulation as a condition of the license in this country. lu Auckland the nuisance of fullthroated yodelling, crashing jazz bands and the hundred-and-one sounds that radio gathers in from the void, contributed so terrible a quota to street noises a couple of years ago from shops where the sets were sold, that there was a public outcry. Retailers themselves found that a quiet demonstration within their stores was more effective in making sales than the ungoverned roar and crackle that bad irritated the public they sought as customers. Thus one major noise was rooted out and everybody was happier.

This much has already been accomplished. The sentiment for quieter streets in this age of bustle is very definite. England is showing the way. Shall we follow?