When we moved from Taichung back to the US, we had a hard time sleeping at night because it was so quiet.
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Pull a Chicago. Put up cameras at all intersections and time the yellow so that itâs impossible to make it through. Take a photo of the license place of and fine every car that was in the intersection at the time of the red light. No one would need to pay any taxes in all of Taiwan. The revenue from red-light-blowers in Taipei City could fund everything!
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They have them. They tired enforcing it. I think the laws on intentionally noisy cars and motorcycles/ scooters was that youâd get a warning, need to get the âproblemâ fixed, show that you âfixedâ it, and then you could go back to the shop to unfix it once you got the all clear. No fines, just warnings over and over again, and money spent on âfixingâ your vehicle as the warnings came, but the government not making anything off your nuisance.
I would think living green walls (like moss) along the outside of buildings would do something for noise absorption, especially since youâd basically be creating sound panels on what are currently excellent amplifiers, but, since 99.9% of buildings are not insulated in any way, I would imagine that would create a nasty wet mess on the interior, even if it would cut down on both noise and A/C costs.
I tried to look into sound inversion (like noise cancelling headphones tech) on a mass scale. Apparently it only works on enclosed spaces. Darn, I was hoping to have loud vehicles think they stalled every time they drove past my home because there would be sudden silence. I would also not have to hear it. One can dream.
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Do you move to a new apartment or house every time it becomes dirty? Or do you clean it⌠and perhaps even make renovations, updates, and improvements that may benefit others as well as yourself?
In any case, itâs not all about me. As I noted, âIf I can hear it, so can thousands more people, each affected, even if they donât consciously notice or complain or groan. And it happens hundreds of times per day.â The noise pollution should be addressed for ALL of Taiwanâs benefit, not just mine. (And to varing degrees, same issue of noise pollution needs attention globally (including âNew york, LA, tokyo, vancouver, manilla etc etcâ). Also note: AIR QUALITY also would be greatly improved as a positive side effect of addressing the noise (and vice versa).
I urge all to watch the video @fonserbc shared that details the impact of noise and how to solve â as other cities have already shown. See Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud - YouTube
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Gogoro wants to be primarily a battery swap platform, and Yamaha and Aeon have joined.
Kymco for some reason, wants to go-it-alone. So they canât use Gogoroâs stations, what a waste.
https://electrek.co/2018/06/13/kymco-prepares-to-battle-gogoro-electric-scooters/
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I read a couple of tidbits recently that inspired hope:
- A summary posted somewhere on Forumosa (sorry I canât recall where exactly) about how everyone in Taiwan insisted itâs fruitless and hopeless to try to get scooter riders to wear helmets, and then in fact once they did truly enforce the law (not just warnings but fines etc) the rule became followed without hardly any exception.
- The new 2021 law that provides for fines of up to NT$3600 for any vehicle that makes excessive noise. See Noise pollution fines for vehicles start on Jan. 1 - Taipei Times
If enforcement was employed as well for noise as it was for helmets, weâd see (hear!) instant and dramatic improvements. Alas, the article indicated a mere 36 ânoise camerasâ for the entire nation. Hereâs hoping the Environmental Protection Administrationâs Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control (thatâs a mouthful!) can not only (as planned) deploy more in vehicle noise âhot spotsâ but also really and truly enforce the regulations. (Perhaps stop putting signs up that warn people with signs to quiet down. Thatâs like having a speed checkpoints set up with warning signs 100m ahead of the checkpoints.)
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See also Taiwan's ânoise camerasâ to start targeting raucous vehicles | Taiwan News | 2020-12-02 12:42:00
Iâm from Barcelona, Spain, also shortly lived in Sweden.
Barcelona is actually one of the loudest cities of Europe, and we have very similar problems like the ones here in Taiwan (in terms of noise) and everyone living in the city I know is both aware and very critical about noise and other motor-vehicle related pollution.
@moderators could you remove the â(compared to Europe)â from the title?
I donât seem to be able to anymore.
I donât want to get into a discussion about what countries are louder than others. The intention of the post was to bring the videos and the concepts of the yt channel, criticizing noise in cities and lack of infrastructure to make cities safer, and how these are very much true here in Taiwan.
Loud is subjective. You canât call something loud without something quiet to compare to and people are going to disagree. They may come from louder places or similar places and think otherwise.
There are quiet places here in Taiwan. I know cause I live in one.
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Fair.
Alternative title:
Taiwan cities are LOUD & drivers can only be as bad as the roads let them
Is it ever too late to change the title of a topic?
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When Iâve spoken to Taiwanese in countries that are much more quiet they have told me they are uncomfortable. They would sleep with the tv on and room lights on because it was too quiet and too dark. M
The noise and light pollution here is always something that causes me pain. 
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No, because my house is mine and i can clean it. Cities kind of go hand in hand with noise. Millions of people living together twnd to do that, so i do (did already) move somewhere quiet.things like car n oise is certainly a fixable thing, But its always going to be noisy in busy areas. Unless we start going rule crazy like singapore, which is a bad idea.
Ticket noisy cars, construction between certain hours etc seem about all one can fairly expect the gov to do. Ive heard some buses that are about as loud as those scooters with fart pipes as well.you can v ideo and send to them and they will send a ticket if its against the rules.
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Iâm all for doing something, and certainly not expecting silence. So yes, 1000% agree re: ticketing noisy vehicles. Doing that to the degree needed to change habits/behaviors (like was done with helmets) would make a huge improvement.
If anyone can confirm a video of noisy vehicle would be enough to get them ticketed then I may just start staking out busy interesections with a decent camera and shotgun mic (If I canât just aim one from my open window at 9th floorâŚ)
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The government already has, in the past, incentivized the snitching system. Mostly for things like parking, red lights etc and recently CCP virus issues such as not wearing a mask. This however, i view as a very slippery slope. I jokingly calling it the Singapore system as their cutlture is all about snitching and being sheep with total faith in their leaders to do the right thing. I view this as incredibly dangerous and not a good idea as has been shown fairly thoroughly throughout cultures and timelines. Blind faith rarely works out. And yes, i do understand singapore is rich. But it is a horrible place in my opinion.if you care about life over money. Many disagree, but its all in the open so to each their own.
Regardless, being realistic, i doubt that a video would work for noise as its easy to contest in court as you cannot count decible levels. Where a picture of someone parked on the red line, waiting for the red light on the sidewalk or not wearing a mask is fairly obvious and easy to prove. In these situations the singapore model of snitching, or Burmese if you prefer, is harder to fight in court.
I personally feel we should spend our efforts giving the police pressure to start actually enforcing laws as per their actual job. This is FAR preferable over slowly changing a society to become paranoid assholes and ratting each other out. Also more effective as changing the top down in this example means your energy is actually extended far past where you would get by fighting the public 1 on 1 via the force extrpolating the enforcement.
Frankly, we have more than enough laws in most situations in Taiwan and certainly moret than enough police officers! I would prefer to see the police take their fingers out of their ass to enforce things rather than the public become total douche bags getting involved in everyones business (more than they already are)âŚ
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Agree â Far better to have police really enforce and leave citizens free to live without becoming snitches and turning on each other. It would also be nice if those who have loud vehicles somehow at last realize how the noise pollution so negatively impacts their fellow citizens and be considerate enough to make their vehicles quiet at last! But alas, without some penalty to motivate such a realization I expect few will become enlightened.
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Only takes one though.
Soon cars will drive themselves and all those narrow, obstacle-ridden will probably decrease efficiency significantly.
Itâd be nice if we stopped making (and in Taiwan stopped buying) cars roughly the size of military tanks.
Guy
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Taiwan politician leading procession atop little blue truck which is spewing smoke, addressing crowd through megaphone while followers block streets and set off firecrackers- âVote for me if youâre against noise pollution, air pollution and traffic jams.â
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$1 says that guy with the motorcycle is a smoker too. In general a better education from the ground. up about our surroundings, how other people feel etc would be easily included in school rooms and would help to solve all the different problems stemming from not thinking about anything outside ones bubble.
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