Beware, New York drivers, noise cameras might soon pop up across town

Earlier this week, New York City Councilmember Keith Powers released a new report focusing on noise pollution across the city, hoping to finally do something about the issue on a legislative level. 

That something might very well look like the sorts of "noise cameras" that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) installed around town back in February 2022 as part of a pilot program that has both its fans and critics.

Basically, when detecting a loud car, the noise camera would take a picture of the license plate and trigger a ticket sent directly to the owner of the vehicle. That citation may cost repeat offenders up to $2,000.

According to Gothamist, "these cameras activate when they detect a sound of 85 A-weighted decibels or more from about 50 feet away." What that effectively means is that "the average heavy-duty diesel tractor trailer traveling at 40 mph" would get ticketed. Given that, according to Powers' report, over a third of 311 calls in the first quarter of 2023 were about noise-related queries, that threshold may actually be a problem for some drivers. 

Officials actually hoped to introduce seven new bills concerning the matter yesterday, but the meeting was postponed until October.

Gothamist reports that the package would tackle two parts of the matter. On the one hand, it seeks to define what an unreasonable level of noise actually is, whether coming from private spaces, public destinations and even construction sites. On the other hand, it looks at ways of enforcement—which is where the noise camera come in.

Sure, loud noises at all times of day and night are part of what makes New York, New York... but we personally wouldn't mind a bit more silence at times.