Canberra roads chocker block full of noisy vehicles

c` said :

CoffinRX2 said :

Prospector said :

I sympathise with you on this. In general, I’ve found roads in comparable European and British cities seem a good deal quieter than those around Canberra.

Charges for road use in Australia are far too low (including fuel taxes) – this facilitates anti-social behaviour on our roads, including hooning around in noisy vehicles.

Yes, there may be many other more pressing issues about, but that doesn’t mean we can’t address these kinds of ‘quality of life’ issues as well.

Care to enlighten me on the following? “charges for road use in Australia are far too low – this facilitates anti-social behaviour on our roads”

Etc. I think a good default position is that as a member of a society you are free to do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of said society by others.

I don’t understand myself the need for loud cars and the ‘loud zorsts make me more noticable’ argument doesn’t do much for me. Not saying that’s the only point of view but I would suspect I’m not in the minority in saying so.

Then maybe people should keep their screaming kids up, or their noisy barking dogs … I bet there are more of those per capita than noisy cars!

I dont have a loud exhaust just so people hear me, but it is good that people can. … I choose to modify my car (which gets taken to the track) and to get the most out of it, a free flowing exhaust is required

c` said :

[…]the ‘loud zorsts make me more noticable’ argument doesn’t do much for me. Not saying that’s the only point of view but I would suspect I’m not in the minority in saying so.

That’s fair enough I spose.

Be prepared for those of us that have lost friends/family members in motorcycle accidents due to inattentive car drivers to have a different point of view.

Those that are so disturbed by vehicle noise should probably look at moving to a small hick town like Braidwood where their delicate eardrums can be better buffered from such quality-of-life-destroying noise as a motorcycle exhaust for 5 seconds as it passes by. Otherwise, I’m afraid their argument about it being a quality of life issue (while choosing to live in a CITY) ‘doesn’t do much for me’ either.

CoffinRX2 said :

Prospector said :

I sympathise with you on this. In general, I’ve found roads in comparable European and British cities seem a good deal quieter than those around Canberra.

Charges for road use in Australia are far too low (including fuel taxes) – this facilitates anti-social behaviour on our roads, including hooning around in noisy vehicles.

Yes, there may be many other more pressing issues about, but that doesn’t mean we can’t address these kinds of ‘quality of life’ issues as well.

Care to enlighten me on the following? “charges for road use in Australia are far too low – this facilitates anti-social behaviour on our roads”

Etc. I think a good default position is that as a member of a society you are free to do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of said society by others.

I don’t understand myself the need for loud cars and the ‘loud zorsts make me more noticable’ argument doesn’t do much for me. Not saying that’s the only point of view but I would suspect I’m not in the minority in saying so.

Prospector said :

I sympathise with you on this. In general, I’ve found roads in comparable European and British cities seem a good deal quieter than those around Canberra.

Charges for road use in Australia are far too low (including fuel taxes) – this facilitates anti-social behaviour on our roads, including hooning around in noisy vehicles.

Yes, there may be many other more pressing issues about, but that doesn’t mean we can’t address these kinds of ‘quality of life’ issues as well.

Care to enlighten me on the following? “charges for road use in Australia are far too low – this facilitates anti-social behaviour on our roads”

I sympathise with you on this. In general, I’ve found roads in comparable European and British cities seem a good deal quieter than those around Canberra.

Charges for road use in Australia are far too low (including fuel taxes) – this facilitates anti-social behaviour on our roads, including hooning around in noisy vehicles.

Yes, there may be many other more pressing issues about, but that doesn’t mean we can’t address these kinds of ‘quality of life’ issues as well.

Mathman said :

Totally agree with you, Tenpro. I’d also like to add the problem of loudly coloured vehicles. Canberra is chocked full of cars painted in all type of loud colours such as ‘Lightning Strike’, ‘Vixen’, ‘Thunder’, ‘Atomic’ and ‘Wildfire’. Just their names cause my eyeballs to reverberate. All of these noisy colours make the traffic look untidy and contribute to visual pollution. What is wrong with a nice cream or beige?

The ACT Government totally ignores this problem and doesn’t even have an agency to complain to. I tried lodging a complaint with artsACT but they didn’t even have a complaints form – in any case they don’t have much concern for visual amenity.

Unnecessary colour also has a grossly negative effect on our community in many ways including the following:

* It is impossible for many people to relax and watch the traffic go by without being visually assaulted
* Mental stress cause by clashing colour combinations in car parks – ‘red and green should never be seen’ applies to cars too you know
* Excess water usage from washing cars because their colour shows up the dust
* Reduced effectiveness of fire engines because they are no longer a distinctive colour
* Increased danger to cyclists because their lycra no longer stands out as they weave through traffic
* Increased speeding as hoons drive loud coloured cars because they know they go faster

Our roads are chocker block full of loudly coloured motor vehicles due to a lack of interest in this issue by the ACT Government. Either the relevant legislation is inadequate or it is not being enforced properly.

I too would like to set up a group of interested people with the intent of doing whatever is possible to reduce the problem of too much colour in Canberra.

ROTFLMAO!

“As a result the ability of many people to perform their duties as employees, employers, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters etc. is significantly reduced.”

If any husbands are unable to perform their duties, I am more than happy to FulFILL their obligations.

Jim Jones said :

James-T-Kirk said :

THUD THUD THUD

SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU –

JUST LET ME TURN DOWN THE VOLUME ON MY AWESOME CAR STEREO….

🙂

Why is it that people spend thousands of dollars on car stereos in order to listen to a single repeated bass note?

That sir, is an interesting question – for me, it is actually about feeling the bass, people outside the car can only hear the thud, so they have no clue

Jim Jones said :

James-T-Kirk said :

THUD THUD THUD

SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU –

JUST LET ME TURN DOWN THE VOLUME ON MY AWESOME CAR STEREO….

🙂

Why is it that people spend thousands of dollars on car stereos in order to listen to a single repeated bass note?

Probably the same reason people jump on RA and whinge bitch and moan about loud cars …. its something they take pleasure in

James-T-Kirk said :

THUD THUD THUD

SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU –

JUST LET ME TURN DOWN THE VOLUME ON MY AWESOME CAR STEREO….

🙂

Why is it that people spend thousands of dollars on car stereos in order to listen to a single repeated bass note?

I live on a farm, 30km out of Canberra. My house is set back 400m from the road (not a main road but still fairly busy), with a small forest planted between my house and the road. And I can still hear trucks, and cars with standard exhausts driving on the road past my house.

So what do you expect when you are living within canberra suburbs.

Get over it!!

THUD THUD THUD

SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU –

JUST LET ME TURN DOWN THE VOLUME ON MY AWESOME CAR STEREO….

🙂

justin heywood said :

MartyMcFly said :

blah blah blah, all over the board

Try a bit more subtlety in your trolling there Marty. At the moment you just sound like a goose.
.

Please don’t misquote. All it does is make you look like a moon bear…..

cleo said:

“numberonebbqer and p1

I’m sure you would be spending a bit of money on your cars doing things like this.”

Actually yes! we who don’t waste our spare change buying a new fluro lycra outfit every week to to take the Malvern Star 5 minutes to the nearest wank coffee shop for a skinny late’ can afford such things.

MartyMcFly said :

blah blah blah, all over the board

Try a bit more subtlety in your trolling there Marty. At the moment you just sound like a goose.
.

Ahhhh as if right on cue, driving home from work today, some balding guy in a Nissan 180sx comes past me on the monaro hwy, not only didnt he check his blind spot, he fails to indicate and nearly pushes me off the road, … and then has the audacity to give me the finger after I get on the horn?

Yer thats right, whinge and complain about loud and noisy cars, but not the people who cant drive?

I recently purchased a Prius, for the whole noise thing as well as the fact that its basically running of air from what the salesman explained to me….. I think its about time we took a hard long look at ourselves and done something about the saving environment and reducing our carbon footprint..

la mente torbida said :

@CoffinRX2

So tell me, with your loud car, how the hell do you notice other Canberra drivers before you change lanes?

Or are you one of the few excellent car drivers that check mirrors and head check before changing lanes?

I think, and I may be wrong here, but he might be using his eyes to see where he’s going?????
Generally this is not possible with 90% of Canberra’s drivers as they’re looking in the mirror putting their make up on.

Also won’t someone do something about Mr Whippy vans driving around making noise too! Bloody loud cars

I whole heartedly agree with you.
I just don’t like it when anyone buys a car that I don’t like.
Can’t everyone just drive a Hyundai Getz just like me?
What possible reason could anyone have to want something different to me?
I can’t think of any.

la mente torbida said :

@CoffinRX2

So tell me, with your loud car, how the hell do you notice other Canberra drivers before you change lanes?

Or are you one of the few excellent car drivers that check mirrors and head check before changing lanes?

The fact that I have a loud car has no effect on the fact that I have eyes? and use them? … it really seems that canberra drivers not only dont check their mirrors and blindspots, but are totally blind to everything else going on around them!

I’m not saying i’m “one of the few excellent car drivers” but I am involved with organisation, sponsoring and competing in motorsport in the region, so yes, I do know what I’m doing behind the wheel of a car.

@CoffinRX2

So tell me, with your loud car, how the hell do you notice other Canberra drivers before you change lanes?

Or are you one of the few excellent car drivers that check mirrors and head check before changing lanes?

Solution is simple. Move or shut the hell up.

CoffinRX2 said :

Oh my god, do you really have that little to do in your life than complain about loud cars? Do you also complain about buses, trucks, barking dogs, hell even screaming little kids?

Bloody screaming kids, I hate them too.

CoffinRX2 said :

I drive a loud car, and as mentioned before, people actually notice you are there, and with the masses of canberra drivers who are oblivious to road rules, I’ve never had anyone change lanes into their blind spot in my weekend car, compared to nearly a daily occurence in my bland “whitegoods” work car

Totally agree with you.

numberonebbqer and p1

I’m sure you would be spending a bit of money on your cars doing things like this.

Oh my god, do you really have that little to do in your life than complain about loud cars? Do you also complain about buses, trucks, barking dogs, hell even screaming little kids?

I drive a loud car, and as mentioned before, people actually notice you are there, and with the masses of canberra drivers who are oblivious to road rules, I’ve never had anyone change lanes into their blind spot in my weekend car, compared to nearly a daily occurence in my bland “whitegoods” work car

hax
There aren’t that many noisy vehicles, just a few bad cases, and general noise pollution is a lot worse in larger cities than little old Canberra.

You’ve quite obviously not spent much time around Macpherson St in O’Connor or Torrens/Girrawheen St’s in Braddon. Precious few vehicles can be considered quiet, either because they are poorly driven, poorly modified, or both.

rbw said :

…this area needs traffic calming devices urgently…

Traffic calming devices are great for turning suburban streets into rally courses. Kerrigan St in Fraser/Charnwood has been a lot more fun to drive down since they put in the chicanes! 🙂

A nice thought, but it would be hypocritical for me to support it. I’m not a fan of noisy vehicles and I try not to drive much, but I have a dog that barks loudly whenever anyone walks past the gate, a screaming two year old who assails shoppers’ ears, a subwoofer attached to my TV which may be audible to people walking past (but not a 2AM doof doof fiend), and I’ve been known to use a lawn mower. Nevertheless, I wish you the best of luck.

I “heard” the speed humps are great for doing burn outs on though

I like to hit them at speed and use them as jumps 🙂

I fully agree. I live in Wanniassa and it looks like I am going to have to move due to the rev-head love affair with Wheeler cres and the roundabout on forlonge st/wheeler cres.
constant burn outs and loud mufflers shaking the foundation of my house. burn outs at 2-3am. I’ve caught several motorists on video and submitted to ACT Police in Tuggeranong with a couple of convictions resulting, but they are quite powerless to stop it since therre are SO many doing it. Just drive around the area and you see all the skid marks on the roads here. Thankfully police patrols have increased, but this area needs traffic calming devices urgently and for that god awful roundabout on forlonge/wheeler to be ripped up and replaced with something that will prevent burnouts

Are you seriously this worried about loud cars? Hahah wow you must have no life. My old car was a very loud V8. There is no better sound in the world then a beast of an 8 or a Harley.

Loud cars are always going to be around. Just be thankful you don’t live in Sydney or you’d be complaining about the sirens going at all times of night and the large amount of noisy cars. Canberra has hardly any in comparison.

There are so many more important things in life to worry about. So something useful with your time.

numberonebbqer said :

“I get really annoyed when petrol heads roar up Forbes street, they are avoiding the camera’s, I just wish the were speed humps, as there are elderly people living in the street.”

I “heard” the speed humps are great for doing burn outs on though

They are!! I learnt how to do burnouts on speed humps because they are nice and smooth.

Mathman said :

Totally agree with you, Tenpro. I’d also like to add the problem of loudly coloured vehicles. Canberra is chocked full of cars painted in all type of loud colours such as ‘Lightning Strike’, ‘Vixen’, ‘Thunder’, ‘Atomic’ and ‘Wildfire’. Just their names cause my eyeballs to reverberate. All of these noisy colours make the traffic look untidy and contribute to visual pollution. What is wrong with a nice cream or beige?

The ACT Government totally ignores this problem and doesn’t even have an agency to complain to. I tried lodging a complaint with artsACT but they didn’t even have a complaints form – in any case they don’t have much concern for visual amenity.

Unnecessary colour also has a grossly negative effect on our community in many ways including the following:

* It is impossible for many people to relax and watch the traffic go by without being visually assaulted
* Mental stress cause by clashing colour combinations in car parks – ‘red and green should never be seen’ applies to cars too you know
* Excess water usage from washing cars because their colour shows up the dust
* Reduced effectiveness of fire engines because they are no longer a distinctive colour
* Increased danger to cyclists because their lycra no longer stands out as they weave through traffic
* Increased speeding as hoons drive loud coloured cars because they know they go faster

Our roads are chocker block full of loudly coloured motor vehicles due to a lack of interest in this issue by the ACT Government. Either the relevant legislation is inadequate or it is not being enforced properly.

I too would like to set up a group of interested people with the intent of doing whatever is possible to reduce the problem of too much colour in Canberra.

I’m with you Mathman. Can we include cars with those turbo wanker valves?

“I get really annoyed when petrol heads roar up Forbes street, they are avoiding the camera’s, I just wish the were speed humps, as there are elderly people living in the street.”

I “heard” the speed humps are great for doing burn outs on though

Hard to believe that this new invention, the internal combustion engine, would make noise!

What is the world coming to??

There aren’t that many noisy vehicles, just a few bad cases, and general noise pollution is a lot worse in larger cities than little old Canberra.

People are going to be okay with adding trains though, right?

I have been complaining for years to the ACT Government. If you report a particular vehicle they will call it in for a check however the modified muffler is usually replaced for the test then the offending muffler is restored. Some muffler shops will even lend you a legal muffler for the test. In Europe it is illegal to modify any vehicle so that it is noisier than when originally manufactured. So simple a solution!

I get really annoyed when petrol heads roar up Forbes street, they are avoiding the camera’s, I just wish the were speed humps, as there are elderly people living in the street.

I think we might be onto something, maybe the govt should ban all privately owned cars and we can all pay a levy to hire a white or beige hybrid from the RTA.

The youngsters should not see cars as time wasting hobbies and go back to traditional forms of entertainment such as drug use.

….and the loud bike riders and hot-rod drivers can go back to domestic violence

Totally agree with you, Tenpro. I’d also like to add the problem of loudly coloured vehicles. Canberra is chocked full of cars painted in all type of loud colours such as ‘Lightning Strike’, ‘Vixen’, ‘Thunder’, ‘Atomic’ and ‘Wildfire’. Just their names cause my eyeballs to reverberate. All of these noisy colours make the traffic look untidy and contribute to visual pollution. What is wrong with a nice cream or beige?

The ACT Government totally ignores this problem and doesn’t even have an agency to complain to. I tried lodging a complaint with artsACT but they didn’t even have a complaints form – in any case they don’t have much concern for visual amenity.

Unnecessary colour also has a grossly negative effect on our community in many ways including the following:

* It is impossible for many people to relax and watch the traffic go by without being visually assaulted
* Mental stress cause by clashing colour combinations in car parks – ‘red and green should never be seen’ applies to cars too you know
* Excess water usage from washing cars because their colour shows up the dust
* Reduced effectiveness of fire engines because they are no longer a distinctive colour
* Increased danger to cyclists because their lycra no longer stands out as they weave through traffic
* Increased speeding as hoons drive loud coloured cars because they know they go faster

Our roads are chocker block full of loudly coloured motor vehicles due to a lack of interest in this issue by the ACT Government. Either the relevant legislation is inadequate or it is not being enforced properly.

I too would like to set up a group of interested people with the intent of doing whatever is possible to reduce the problem of too much colour in Canberra.

I agree wholeheartely, here is our experience:

We live in a house backing onto the corner of Southern Cross Drive and a main road into a suburb. We chose to live here and have become used to the general road noise, but some vehicles are loud enough to wake us even when double glazed windows are closed. Some of these vehicles are from within our suburb and we regularly hear other loud vehicles travel along Southern Cross Drive extremely fast or ‘burn’ around the corner into our suburb with no thought for residents.

We contacted ACT Government quite a few times to ask if trees could be planted between our house and the road to dampen noise, we explained that loud vehicles impact our quality of life, eventually they advised trees would make no difference and instead placed a noise monitor temporarily in our yard. They advised if road noise is above acceptable levels they will consider ways to lessen the noise, we are waiting to hear back from them so we live in hope. They advised we should also contact Police to lodge complaints about loud cars, we havent done this as we think the Police are busy enough without us whining to them and doubted our lone voice could change anything in this regard.

Tenpro once again I agree wholeheartedly, but also think there are planning issues. In a city that is spacious, well planned, with a generally good quality of life, why do alot of residences back directly onto arterial roads. I previously lived in a house backing Belconnen Way with a dirt bank between the house and road making road noise hardly noticable. Improved public transport could also remove cars from the roads and improve our quality of life.

Nope, don’t agree with you.

There are much more important issues in life to worry about, the roads are not “chocker block full of noisy vehicles” as you say, a solid survey of peak type traffic will tell you that.

If you live in a noisy street, move, I did in the past and its worked fine.

Take the rego and lodge the complaint with the RTA? Although that process is rediculously hard work, and requires you to virtually make a stat dec and mail all paper work into them.

Trouble is that even if they do get caught, they make it legal to get it inspected then go home and change it back. I think there’s a far bigger problem in unroadworthy cars on the road than noisy cars, which in comparison to other places is quite low.

A noble cause which I would support in a practical way if I thought it would have any effect. Alas alack we live in a society that has very little concern for un-necessary noise. Every corner of the city (apart thank gawd for the lake) is a constant bombardment of noise. It’s a fact of life. Noisy stereos, noisy mowers, noisy vehicle hot dogs and Harley riders with teeny weeny little wieners trying to make up for a lack of inches with excessive noise, etc. The list goes ever on and only a small percentage of the population care or even notice.

Ten points if you can get anything done about though 🙂

We have students being stabbed in public schools, junkies being found dead at bus interchanges and house robberies on the rise, and you think they’re worried about a few noisy cars? I think you need to focus your energy on something a little more worthwhile.

I moved house from Kambah as a result of the diabolical vehicle noise generated by traffic on Learmonth Drive. The uphill section from Athlon Drive was treated as a performance test by many cars and every Harley. Those things are almost universally modified to straight through exhausts, and no-one has the temerity to clamp down on the riders.

The ACT Gov only enforces vehicular noise standards when a certain citizen from NSW whinged so much that all motorsport at Fairbairn Park is monitored 24 hours per day, and pity help you if your vehicle exceeds the permanent (ACT) noise meter installed in the (NSW) back yard of the above whinger. He has ACT Gov authorities on site at Fairburn Park inside 15 minutes to stop any ‘loud’ vehicle. Funny that the noise generated by railway traffic and heavy vehicles on Sutton Road are ignored.

Not an even-handed policy, but hey, motorsport cannot be tolerated by this Gov. Not artistic enough.

I agree that noisy vehicles are a blight, and whilst the noise level for (new) vehicle rego is being reduced, obnoxious modified loud vehicles do not seem to even touch the radar of the relevant authorities.