You will have to pay for the volume – Nauka – Kommersant

by time news

Devices appeared on the lampposts in the 20th Arrondissement of Paris, in which a video camera is connected to a sensitive microphone. These are noise radars: the city authorities are experimenting with a system for automatically detecting too loud sounds. There will be fines for this next year.

The microphone picks up sounds above a certain decibel level, and the camera snatches the license plate of a car or motorcycle and transmits it to the recognition system. So far, this is the end of the matter, but if the experience is successful, the owner of a vehicle that is too loud will receive a receipt.

“Constant loud noise hurts people,” explains David Belliard, deputy mayor of Paris. “These radars will protect our quality of life and our health by punishing those who do not comply with sound standards.”

It is planned to extend the experience of Paris to some other major French cities that suffer from excess noise in the same way. The ability to issue fines for disturbing the peace of people appeared three years ago, when France passed a law on mobility, which, in particular, regulates loudness. That is, it is already possible to punish, but so far the police do not have the proper tool to identify excessively loud vehicles.

The developer of the radar is the non-profit organization Bruitparif, which has existed since 2004. Determining the noise level and combating the sound pollution of cities is the main specialization of Bruitparif. NPO director Fanny Mitlicki explains that automation in identifying violators is needed because the police have a lot of other cases.

The British site Money.co.uk, which specializes in financial products, including mortgages, includes the noise load in the calculation of the cost of housing. According to the website, Paris is the noisiest city in developed Europe, with more than 5.5 million people exposed to dangerous levels of road noise of 55 decibels or more. In London there are 2.6 million, in Vienna and Rome – 1.7 million each.

Based on materials

Alexander Glebov

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