TRAFFIC NOISES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 16 July 1929, Page 10

TRAFFIC NOISES

Discussing the abuse of motor-horns, a writer in London "Truth" says the report of the conference on "undue traffic noises" recognises the public grievance against "excessive and nerve-racking noise from motor-horns," and agrees that the. nerve-racking is produced both by "unduly strident notes" and by "unnecessary and excessive use, particularly at night during normal sleeping hours." Its recommendations were not impressive. The writer suggests that the solution of the problem must be based on "the axiom that no man or woman lias any right to go about emitting raucous shrieks, calculated to pierce all ears within a radius of three or four hundred yards, for no purpose but to warn somebody else, who may or may not be there, that he (or she) is coming along. Further, it should not be allowed as an excuse for creating a public nuisance like this that the perpetrator is in n hurry and cannot lose a fraction of a minute by reducing speed. These are the bed-rock principles on which repression of thf nuisance must rest. T have studied the manners and customs of the bornblowers for main' vears, and T assert without hesitation that more than- half I heir blasts are unnecessary, except on the assumption that the blowers are not under the same obligation to exercise care in nnriroaching possible dangers ns drivers of horses were in the old dnvs. and are fo-dav more than ever. The truth of Hm matter is that a great abuse of individual right has been allowed to grow up and acquire a sort of vested interest; and this creates opposition to reform even in the face of a general consciousness by all parties that things have become very unpleasant and 'something ought to be done.' "