THE STREET NOISE NUISANCE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Probably everyone is aware that a law regulating excessive noise on the roads came into operation at the beginning of last month ; but it is already obvious that the law is likely to become a futile absurdity, more honoured in the breach than the observance, unless some method is invented for its reasonable enforcement. The police seem utterly at a loss how to approach the subject ; to-day in the space of five minutes I saw (and heard) two motor lorries and a steam wagon banging and rattling down Kingsway with a noise like Bedlam let loose. Yet no constable gave even a fleeting attention to these law-breakers ; how could he, with traffic to control and old ladies to direct, and with no knowledge by which he is able to measure noise, as distinguished from sound ?
But I have discovered that the police welcome and, in fact, depend on complaints received from members of the long- suffering British public ; these complaints, if they give the number of the offending vehicle, mean a warning from Police Headquarters, but not a summons ; and I submit that the public can, without being unnecessarily offensive, keep this nuisance in check, as the law decrees and humanity deserves. The probability is that if all vehicles were pneumatic tyred by law, most of this noise trouble would vanish, for it is the solid-tyred vehicle that shatters our ear-drums and our underground gas connections with such deadly effect.—I am, Managing Director, Ed. J. Burrow & Co., Ltd., 43, 45, and 47 Kingsway, London, W.C. 2.
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