Though Europeans are subjected to many of the same disturbing noises of commerce and traffic that affect Americans, there is a basic difference: an attitude that men should be protected from excessive noise. Consequently, many Europeans benefit from advances in everyday noise control.
Many responsible citizens in Europe have organized against noise. National organizations belong to the International Association Against Noise, or AICB. Incorporated as an international organization since 1959, AICB convenes a congress on noise abatement every two years, providing a much-needed forum for the exchange of information.
Many areas of government, on national and local levels, show responsiveness to the noise problem. There is more of a commitment to abate, as evidenced by the laws, personnel to enforce the laws, and acoustic laboratories to back up enforcement and pave the way for improvements.
Zurich (population 600,000) has two agencies for noise control: public health, and the police. A half-day spent with the Zurich noise control police in 1966 was quite a revelation, after experiencing the abysmal ignorance and indifference of New York City's government.
The Zurich Police Office of Noise Control consists of a sharedtime commissioner and four fulltime sergeants. Each sergeant is required to have ten years of experience as a patrolman, plus one year of noise abatement study at the hochschulle. He must keep up to date on noise abatement developments. Facilities include an assortment of decibel-measuring instruments. One room of the office contains an exhibit of noise-control products, including jackhammer mufflers and building materials that keep out sound. This "library" is visited by noisemakers who want to employ noise abatement methods, and by anti-noise law violators.
An American policeman, hearing a motor vehicle with an obviously noisy muffler, can issue a summons. However, if the operator chooses to plead not guilty, the policeman must spend a day in court and satisfy the judge that the vehicle in question was creating "unreasonably loud" noises. This time-consuming and subjective enforcement procedure discourages strict enforcement.
Contrast this cumbersome and lengthy procedure with that in Switzerland (or Germany) where if a policeman issues a citation for a noisy vehicle, the operator(or owner) is required to take the vehicle to a testing station immediately, and cannot drive it again until it is certified as suitably quiet. In Zurich, the police keep the operator's license until the repairs are completed.
The German Federal government has been able to regulate traffic noise for decades because decibel standards have been set for the whole spectrum of motor vehicles, including motor bikes. An operator's license is issued only if there is no violation of these standards. It is also a general philosophy of both German and Swiss motor vehicle laws that the permitted limits will be lowered step by step as technical advances permit.
In addition to muffler control, German and Swiss regulations cover vehicle operations. Drivers must not coast or start out in other than first; unnecessary slamming of car doors, trunks, and hoods is prohibited, as are unnecessary idling and starting of motor bikes in courtyards, gateways, or passages of apartment houses, and slamming of garage doors. In France, automobile radios may be turned on only while the car is moving.
In spite of decibel standards and strict enforcement, traffic noise in Europe remains disturbing. One European acoustic expert, who has been responsible for setting limits, explains: "Yes, our traffic is noisy. We are fighting to maintain a level. Each year there are more vehicles on the road, therefore more noise. We try to lower the permitted levels to at least prevent an increase in the over-all noise generated. Can you imagine what it would be like without any standards?"
It is especially interesting that the Zurich police claim they are stricter than the health department inspectors who, they say, tend to adhere too strictly to decibels. The police depend on an initial human-subjective reaction. Measurements follow, not precede, listening. "A policeman must use his head and his heart to be a good noise policeman," one of them told me. Amen.
The Swiss government has an acoustic testing facility larger and more complete than any non-military facility in the United States. The Netherlands, population 12,660,000, has a Sound Division in its Research Institute for Public Health Engineering. We do not even have a research facility for public health engineering.
The British government has facilities elaborate enough to develop standards and sound insulation data for dwellings, experiment with soundproofing units for homes near airports, research quieter paving-breakers, and conduct noise surveys.
It was my privilege to be the guest of Dr. R.J. Stephenson, Assistant to the Scientific Advisor for the Greater London Council. He showed me GLC's acoustic laboratory facilities and mobile noise testing laboratory. This local government lab has researched the acoustic profile of tall buildings, the noise contour of urban motorways, techniques for shielding residential sites from roadways, techniques for soundproofing windows and providing sound-trapped ventilation, scales for evaluating the relationship between different types of windows and aircraft noise intrusion, studies of the impact of helicopter noise on the urban environment. Also investigated was the effect of traffic vibration on historic buildings, particularly when new roads are being planned.
Where can the American public go for similar information? The only way we learn about the impact of traffic noise and vibration and construction blasting is when it cracks a water main and floods the neighborhood.
European health departments, both local and national, are involved with noise abatement. This does not mean they have all of the needed power to curb the serious noisemakers, but they recognize the issue, they press for constructive legislation, they encourage public and professional debate. They have laboratory facilities. In the Netherlands, noise standards for dwellings are developed by a public health engineering facility. Local health authorities in England take an active role in reducing construction noise. They cooperate with the Noise Abatement Society in educational campaigns, in following up noise complaints; they sponsor demonstrations of quieter products; they present experience papers at noise abatement conferences.
In Germany, the Ministry of Health believes both Federal and local governments in all social conscience have a duty to fight intolerable noise situations. It recognizes that legal commands and prohibitions are necessary to restrain human thoughtlessness and negligence. It also recognizes that without laws the development and use of noise control knowledge will remain largely unrealizable.
Under administrative law the German police, too, are involved in noise control. Here is one of their guidelines:
"The police can only pursue complaints about noise if the noise endangers the security or order. A danger to the public security exists when noise endangers health. Whether this is the case can only be determined in each instance. Though noise without harmful effect on health may not endanger security, it can, however, affect public order. That is first of all the case when the peace of night or rest on Sundays and holidays is unnecessarily disturbed; also when it lowers man's work capacity."
Although many European cities are noisy, many of them have regulations covering noise sources often not covered by American municipal codes. For example, bicycles with auxiliary motors, which are very popular in Denmark, are also very much of a nuisance. According to the traffic code of the Danish Ministry of Justice, which supervises most driving and traffic regulations, the motors of such bicycles "shall be equipped with an effective device for reducing the sound and it shall be kept in a secure state." In 1959, special instructions were issued for measuring a specific noise limit (79 decibels at 7 meters), and at the same time a mobile noise control center was established under the jurisdiction of the state police.
Germany and Switzerland protect noise receivers on Sundays and holidays. Special Sunday and holiday laws ban all work performed in public that could disturb the peace. During the main hours of religious services, all possibly disturbing work must cease. In Germany, to reduce traffic noise on Sundays and holidays, there is a statute forbidding trucks (over a certain weight) to drive between the hours of midnight and 10:00 P.M.