New tool could help crack down on loud cars, dirt bikes in NYC
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Anyone who lives in New York City has heard the loud cars, trucks, motorcycles and more that drive through the streets.
Now one local lawmaker wants to use a new tool to crack down on those drivers.
ATVs and dirt bikes have been spreading loud noise throughout communities as they weave between NYC traffic.
As a result, compounding the problem, raging motorists lean into their horn.
Some residents say it disrupts their sleep and it's like having a nightmare when you're woken up abruptly.
The nightmare is a reality for residents on the Upper East Side and across the city, but relief could be coming soon.
"Whether it's people blasting music, New Yorkers have had it," NYC Councilman Ben Kallos said.
Eyewitness News spoke exclusively with Kallos who introduced a bill Thursday that would bring acoustic monitoring systems to the city if approved.
"As soon as the microphone picked it up, we'd snap a picture, it would get sent to a police officer to review," Kallos said.
The booming vehicles could be looking at fines as high as $1,500. According to analysis from 311, there have been more than 51,000 noise complaints since Jan. 1.
Kallos says California, Canada and several European countries have automated enforcement.
But the new technology he's hoping to bring to the Big Apple has a more sophisticated system that will isolate noise from specific vehicles.
"We can install it in a few months if the city of New York wants to have it," Franz Graf said.
Graf is designing the technology. Right now there is a baseline model in road tunnels in Europe.
Kallos isn't worried about cost.
"We could use the red light camera system, we spent several hundred million dollars on it, and it paid for itself almost immediately," Kallos said.
And residents are looking forward to the change.
"I think some sort of enforcement or some sort of regulation is a starting point," said resident David Gingold.
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