There Ought to Be a Law
Our city has so many useless regulations , but there is one useful one I think is missing. We need a noise pollution law that either bans leaf blowers or limits their use to one day a week in each neighborhood. The city has no problem banning landscape watering to a specified three days a week to preserve our water. They need to schedule the use of leaf blowers to a specified day a week in each neighborhood and require that all leaves blown be placed in the proper recycling can.
I would apply this law only to those who do not live on the property being groomed -- mostly professional gardeners. It would be inconvenient, but they could rearrange their schedule to make it happen. Fewer homeowners have leaf blowers, and I realize they may only have the weekend off and must do their maintenance when they can.
As things are now, each gardener seems to hit my neighborhood on a different day so that no day is quiet. I hate having to write with silencers on my ears, as I am right now. They hurt my ears after a while. Besides the leaf blowers, the gardeners use other power tools before or afterwards to mow and edge lawns. My proposed law would have the added effect of keeping all the power tools a gardener uses confined to the one scheduled day. As things are now, it seems every day there is something making noise out there. Then at night the motor scooters hit the streets and their larger cousins, the motorcycles.
I can understand why my husband wants to move back to our tiny home on acreage when I get well. All we have there is loud music during winery celebrations no more than once a week, and tractors and chainsaws being used by our winery neighbors as needed seasonally. At least there are some quiet days.
How do you feel about noise pollution? Do you have a better solution than I have proposed?
Text is original and may not be used without permission.
B. Radisavljevic, Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
leafblowers noisepollution landscapemaintenance
Image in public domain courtesy of Pixabay.com
Image Credit » http://pixabay.com/en/autumn-air-blower-blower-wind-fan-161776/
Comments
melody23 wrote on December 12, 2014, 4:13 PM
If I could stop people from honking their horns outside I would be very happy. its a busy street and the current roadworks don't help but is there really any need to honk a horn that much, if the person hasn't moved out of your way the first time, the fourth time probably wont help much!
Kasman wrote on December 12, 2014, 5:24 PM
You are right but I don't think such a law would be very practicable to enforce - the police would never be away from some streets! In the UK there are laws regarding the times at which certain kinds of noise is permitted (garden power tools, etc.) and also on the upper level of noise but these mostly apply to very early in the morning or late in the evening and overnight. Throughout the day seems to be pretty much a free-for-all although we can still call the authorities for excessive and persistent noise. I'm just glad I don't work night shift anymore!
Scorpie wrote on December 12, 2014, 5:46 PM
I will drink to that. Leaf blowers is one of my pet peeves.
MegL wrote on December 12, 2014, 6:15 PM
Too much noise is physically bad for people.
Jerry_Walch wrote on December 12, 2014, 6:37 PM
Limit the use of power tools to one day a week? Get real. People have a right to maintain their property themselves or to hire people to maintain their property for them and no one has a right to tell them on what days they can have their property maintained. What you are proposing comes across as sounding purely selfish. Many areas have laws pertaining to noise pollution, laws that limit the use of lawnmowers, lawn edgers, leaf blowers, etc to between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM, that's reasonable and practical, limiting it to one day a week is ludicrous. I live a few blocks from a hospital, sirens are my constant companion but I still don't need to wear the ear protectors that I wear at the pistol range in order to write. Sorry BarbRad, I just don't agree with what you are proposing.
BarbRad wrote on December 12, 2014, 6:50 PM
I agree. Many times people only honk after it can do nothing to improve the situation except make the honker feel better for having vented.
BarbRad wrote on December 12, 2014, 6:51 PM
You're probably right, but I can wish, right?
BarbRad wrote on December 12, 2014, 6:53 PM
Raking leaves can be a calming and quiet activity, a part of an autumn ritual. A leaf blower isn't the same experience at all. It disturbs the peace of autumn and ups the stress level of all within range.
BarbRad wrote on December 12, 2014, 6:54 PM
I'll second that. It's especially bad for those already stressed or in pain.
BarbRad wrote on December 12, 2014, 7:00 PM
They already tell us on what days we can water our landscaping and between what hours on those days and can fine us over a hundred dollars per violation. I agree what I propose is impractical, but I've also had to make special trips to this house because watering a couple of plants the programmed sprinklers miss was the only way to keep them alive during a heat wave, or if already here, I had to stay a couple of hours later than I had planned or be late to a meeting to water after 7 PM. They could just say we are limited to the three days a week we choose, but we don't even have that choice.
bestwriter wrote on December 12, 2014, 7:46 PM
I remember my husband wanting to leave an event - a wedding celebration - just because the music was loud. And for you it must be torture having to go through it ever so often. I only have that guy who has put some added sound to his motorbike Grrrrr
scheng1 wrote on December 12, 2014, 11:20 PM
In the city, the noise pollution is even worse. Those who live next to the highway suffer the most.
LoudMan wrote on December 12, 2014, 11:32 PM
Leaf blowers can be loud as all get-out, especially when you're in pain already.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on December 12, 2014, 11:54 PM
I'm glad I live on thirteen acres. Even then, I still have occasional power tool noise, but not too often.
BarbRad wrote on December 13, 2014, 3:10 AM
I still don't get why some men love to have as much noise as possible beside them.
BarbRad wrote on December 13, 2014, 3:11 AM
i believe that. But residential neighborhoods have a lot of noise, too.
BarbRad wrote on December 13, 2014, 3:12 AM
Quite right.
scheng1 wrote on December 13, 2014, 3:14 AM
Nothing beats the kind of noise in the city. The noise of MRT with vehicles at all hours are very annoying.
BarbRad wrote on December 13, 2014, 3:54 AM
Right. At home we have almost 14 acres, but there are no neighborhoods and most noise comes from farm machinery like tractors and the occasional chain saw. The leaves stay here they fall until Mother Nature blows them quietly away.
Jerry_Walch wrote on December 13, 2014, 12:15 PM
You're comparing apples with oranges. The use of water to water lawns, flowers, etc has to be limited because of it limited supply during the long, hot weather. You can't use the watering issue to justify what you would like to do just because the sound disturbs you.
BarbRad wrote on December 13, 2014, 4:33 PM
I'm not against water rationing -- only against being told what days I can and can't use it. Gasoline is also in short supply and it's a shame that when I'm already somewhere on Tuesday I have to make a special trip to use the same amount of water on Wednesday instead of on Tuesday.
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on December 14, 2014, 1:25 AM
My leaves have a tendency to overstay their welcome, but there's not much point trying to get them out of the yard before about this time. The oaks have only just now shed most of their leaves, although some are still hanging on for dear life. I must get them off the grass next week (but I said that last week, too). Even then, as soon as I do, more will fall.
maxeen wrote on December 15, 2014, 5:15 PM
Taxi drivers are the worst ones for honking their horns-lazy
BarbRad wrote on December 15, 2014, 11:32 PM
We don't have many taxis in our city. But we have noisy trucks that all like to park beside my corner house. They sometimes let their engines run for quite a while (parked) in the morning and sometimes late at night.
maxeen wrote on December 16, 2014, 2:05 PM
It is supposed to be against the law here,they still do it though.