But the most significant change in modern science is not just about the amount of noise, but how we experience it. Noise is no longer understood solely as a problem that affects hearing, it is also recognised as a systemic environmental pollutant. Transport noise is now one of the leading environmental cause of illness in Europe, second only to air pollution.
Motorbikes are without a doubt my biggest source of audio-related stress. Cars are noisy too, but only a sliver in comparison.
Then there’s the special breed of bikers who go out of their way to announce themselves as infuriatingly as possible. I wish them a hot and itchy sleep tonight.
As a former rider, apologies. Whenever I drove in the city I kept the noise and rpm low so you could not make me out between the cars.
It is easily doable, but there are many assholes.
The worst are those without any mufflers. And they block off streets.
A million years ago southpark had an episode about that…
In the before times. In the long long ago.
Motorcycles are a close 2nd only to my neighbors who leave their dogs out barking all night
Well you could always have my neighbours who leave their dogs barking for days while they’re away AND rev the shit out of their Motorcross bikes right by our house.
The thing that’s causing health problems is the constant background noise which emanates from all road vehicles. Bikes may be annoying in the short term, but the vast majority of noise comes from cars.
The theory is that it keeps them safe because drivers hear them before seeing them.
That’s not how sound works. Sound works by inverse square, light doesn’t. Visibility is way more important. If they wanted to be more noticed they would wear high his clothing.
Hi vis clothing only matters when they actually see you, which they dont, because they’re looking at their phones. Noise otoh, may make them actually fucking look.
Sincerely, a motorcyclist.
I dunno, I love riding motorcycles, but I’ve never been able to hear a motorcycle on the road while I’m in a car. Unless they’ve just passed me, then I hear them. But by that time, noticing them is not really important, because they’re already past me. The noise from a motorcycle is from it’s exhaust, the exit of the vehicle. So it makes sense that it’s noisier behind them. If you wanted to be heard before you’re seen, then you’d have an air horn mounted to the front constantly blowing. And that would get you killed by any number of the previously sane people that you run into.
Maybe we should reduce the number of cars.
Makes more sense than their argument
Some are absolutely obnoxious about this, but there is also a safety issue. A lot of car drivers don’t watch carefully enough for motorcycles (or bicycles). Being quiet is dangerous, it makes it more likely that drivers won’t notice you, and then you get hit because they didn’t see you either, and you’re not in an armored box, so you die. Being loud on the road keeps you alive.
Been riding for nearly two decades at this point but this is a myth. People fail to hear emergency vehicles. Your loud pipes aren’t saving you.
No they aren’t, but it makes them feel less shitty about the behavior.
If the only way I could safely drive my vehicle was to be a loud obnoxious fuck constantly to everyone in a quarter mile radius in heavily populated areas, I would simply take a different mode of transportation. RIP to everyone else but I’m different
Oh I agree, motorcycle riding is a very risky thing to do. There’s effectively no protection. It’s not a good idea, even without the context of other drivers. Worse, if you have an accident then the motorcycle becomes a 500-lb hazard .
I think it’s completely understandable that a rider wants to be loud though, especially in the present with so many drivers looking at their phones instead of watching the road.
They don’t listen to music?
This is some highly enriched, weapons grade bullshit. You want drivers to see you? Don’t drive like an idiot. The best way to be hit by a car when you’re on a motorbike is to drive way faster than everyone else, change lanes constantly, overtake cars on the right and split lanes. Guess who does that the most? Idiots on loud bikes.
On top of that you will not hear a bike driving behind you, no matter how loud it is. I have no idea in what fantasy scenarios laud bikes save anyone. It’s 100% just a stupid excuse used by obnoxious idiots.
Motorcycles are fun as hell, but safety has nothing to do with loudness and everything to do with hyper situational awareness and anticipating problems. The fatality curve peaks squarely in the Dunning-Kruger zone. New riders make mistakes but usually resulting in no or lesser injuries because they’re scared and careful. It’s when people get (over) confident at a year or so that the real problems come, usually resulting in a really bad scare or death or major injury. Those that (can and do) continue become super aware of their surroundings and are mostly the safest drivers out there, and the death and accident rate goes way down.
Truthfully driving societies would be way better off if people had to start on motorbikes (or ebikes) before starting to drive around 2 tons of death, the awareness stays with you. That said, fuck cars.
None of any of that has anything to do with noise, cars are sound isolated against their own noise FFS. In aggregate cars make much more noise than motorbikes anyway, sheer numbers, it’s just that you notice the dickhead with the loud pipes more (when you’re not in a sound isolating car).
That’s a hella cope, just admit you like the danger and embrace it.
If you ride, found the Dunning-Kruger person, if not, why comment?
FWIW, I’m retired from that now, but survived a decade or so with barely a scratch and a couple of exhaust burns. Just regular bikes now, and car (for now), mores the pity, but it wasn’t the danger, it was the feeling of speed and responsiveness. They suck in traffic, but a windy mountain road? Exhilarating.
Because the concept that there’s a sweet spot where motorcycles are danger free is asinine, even if you, the driver make 0 mistakes (as if) you’re much more vulnerable on a motorcycle to other people’s mistakes.
you can absolutely hear a loud bike approaching your blind spot, which is kind of the important time to be noticing them
even I can hear them with my half deafness and shitty loud car that you have to yell in to have a conversation on the highway
This logic falls apart because the only time I ever hear motorcycles is when I’m not driving.
Whenever I’m driving, I’m generating my own road noise and listening to music. Just like most other drivers. People around here barely react to emergency sirens, they’re not hearing the busted pipes on an abused Harley. Motorcycle guys just like making loud noises, if they cared about safety? They wouldn’t ride a motorcycle.
I think motorcycles are cool as hell. But since the introduction of modern workplace safety laws, motorcycle crashes are the leading cause of amputations in the USA, so I’ll never ride one. I don’t think they should be banned, but it blows my mind that people choose to ride them given how dangerous they are.
Ok so let’s fix both
Public transit? Do I hear public transit?
Came here to say this. Fuck cars.
irrelevant in residential areas