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The Problem In New Zealand
What is the current law?
Since June 2008 all light vehicles must not exceed
an objective noise level of 95 decibels if the vehicle was registered in New
Zealand before 1 June 2008 or 90 decibels if the vehicle was registered in New
Zealand after June 2008. There are exceptions for vehicles manufactured before
1985 and for high performance vehicles. 95 decibels is the level of noise you
would experience standing half a metre away from a 4 stroke motor mower
operating at full speed. Noise Off believes that this level of noise is
unacceptable and is the cause of much anguish for the average house holder and
business person being terrorised by noisy vehicles.
Modified Vehicles
The vast majority of new motor vehicles brought into
New Zealand in the last 20 years would have complied with the 90 decibel limit.
However, all of these vehicles can now be legally modified to increase their
noise in some cases by more than 100% to 95 decibels even though this level of
noise has been recognised as being too loud and consequently for vehicles
registered after June 2008 the maximum level is 50% quieter at 90 decibels.
The reason given by the Government for allowing
vehicles registered before June 2008 to increase their noise to 95 decibels is
that because it was legal to do so before the amended rule then it would be
unfair to require those people to have to remodify them to comply with the 90
decibel level.
Initially, the Government said the reason was that
many old vehicles would not comply with the 90 decibel level but this was proven
to be incorrect after Noise Off undertook objective testing on a range of motor
vehicles including older vehicles which were all under 90 decibels if the
vehicle had not been modified. The Government then said "Kiwi mums and dads" had
purchased imported cars with exhausts greater than 90 decibels. Noise Off is not
aware of "Kiwi mums and dads" who have unwittingly purchased noisy cars but even
if that were the case this does still not justify allowing the other 2,500,000
vehicles to now increase their noise level by 100% to the unacceptably high
level of 95 decibels.
Noise Off believes that if the Government was
serious in wanting to make an allowance for those already modified vehicles then
they could be phased out through deferring the introduction of the 90 decibel
level for those vehicles for another two or three years or by grand parenting
the equipment on those vehicles for the life of the equipment. This could easily
be achieved instead of allowing all the other vehicles on the road to also
increase their noise.
Noise Off believes that the real reason for allowing
all of the existing vehicles to increase their noise is to accommodate "vehicle
enthusiasts" who consider it acceptable to make excessive noise with their motor
vehicles as an integral part of their motoring hobby. These people are not
necessarily "boy racers" but are nevertheless more concerned about their cars
than they are about the effect that the noise from their motor vehicle has on
other people and businesses.
What can the Councils do?
There is nothing your
local council can do about vehicle noise. It is a central government issue.
The law (Resource Management Act) requires councils to prevent unreasonable
noise from properties, but they cannot control vehicle noise from the
roads.
This produces some truly
stupid consequences. For example, the Christchurch City Council District Plan
sets the upper noise limit for permitted activities in a residential area at
41 dB(A)
(decibels) at night.
That noise limit is measured from the boundary of the property. However,
a car can drive past your home and produce exhaust noise measured from inside
a bedroom, double glazed and shut, at up to 66
dB(A)
or more! That is over 4
times louder than the Council Plan allows from a private property. This is a
true example, read an independent expert's report at the link below. The
District Plan, in this example, is not much use to anyone.
Stuart Camp's (acoustic expert) evidence to the
Regulation Review Committee
Understanding how sound is measured
World
Health Organisation
The World Health
Organisation Guidelines say that for good sleep, sound level should not exceed
30 dB(A) for continuous background noise, and individual noise events exceeding
45 dB(A) should be avoided.
The World Health Organisation Guidelines
What can the Police do?
The Police can take a number of steps to deter those
who fit noisy exhausts or drive in a manner which creates excessive noise.
The options are as follows;
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$150 instant fine and no demerits when the noise
from the modified exhaust is not less than or similar to the original exhaust
fitted
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$50 fine and 25 demerits for when the noise in all
the circumstances is excessive.
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Issue a Non Operation order (known as a "Green
Sticker") on the vehicle and order it undergo / pass an objective noise test
before it gets a new WOF
Vehicle Equipment (Noise) Amendment 2009
In response to Noise Off and other interested
parties' vocal concerns about the 95 decibel limit for vehicles registered
before June 2008 the Government moved quickly to announce further tinkering with
the vehicle equipment laws by further targeting the "boy racer" demographic
whilst protecting the "car enthusiast". This resulted in the announcement of the
Vehicle Equipment (Noise) Amendment 2009.
In essence, this new proposed amendment will require
a vehicle which is found to exceed the 95 decibel limit to have its exhaust
modified so that it does not exceed 90 decibels. However, once the 90 decibel
level has been complied with, then the owner may legally remodify the exhaust to
again increase the noise level to 95 decibels.
This extraordinary knee jerk reaction proposal is
complex and impractical but nevertheless may result in some further reduction of
noise levels from the "boy racer" brigade. Noise Off has reluctantly supported
the new amendment in the absence of a 90 decibel limit being imposed across all
vehicles registered since 1985.
Links.
How are other countries dealing with the exhaust
noise problem.
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