Noise Sensitivity: Blog about those trucks going beep beep b

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Having been woken up by a truck backing up and going "beep beep beep," I Googled the issue and I found this:

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/communi ... ep.101931/

It's from some discussion site for pilots, from 2017. I was just relieved to read anyone else discussing this. Especially the part about how the trucks seem to back up more often than they go forward. The writer suggests that with modern technology, there are better solutions that don't involve bombarding countless people who are in no danger with constant piercing alarms designed to make them agitated. Unfortunately, some people in the website's comments are very dismissive, saying it's just an "inconvenience" and we've just got to live with this horrid noise forever because it's the only solution.

It's a terrible sound. Piercing.

It's the second worst possible outcome of a truck backing up.

Someone getting squished would of course be worse.

Have you heard Amazon trucks back up? Those are even worse.

I think they're deliberately being obnoxious though. It's like people who take out their mufflers just to get attention, even if that attention is a lot of middle fingers.

Speaking from experience, people straight-pipe their cars for themselves, not for other people. There's few experiences more viscerally enjoyable than driving a straight-piped car with no sound-deadening and no stereo, especially when you can see fireballs spitting out the exhaust.

The idea that it's for other people is nothing more than a dumb meme spread among people who don't actually get it. Because they don't get it they can't offer any worthwhile insights, hence the lack of informed insight within the meme.

Nonetheless, there's also few experiences more viscerally deplorable than having to stand on the sidewalk as your body vibrates and slowly liquefies from the horrific rumbling suggestive of an earthquake or dangerously low-flying plane. It's one of the most inconsiderate things a person can do.

You're entitled to not like it, but the whole pretending like it's for attention is just an admission of not understanding the appeal.

So long as one isn't breaking the law it's really not their problem what the small minority of people who hate it think. Most people don't love or hate loud exhausts. They're not as fond of them as I am and they're not as bothered by them as you are. That majority is who's opinion ultimately matters when deciding what the limit ought to be.

The limit can't be too low because that just punishes people who can't afford to fix exhaust leaks and similar. My car wasn't straight piped because I chose to, it was straight piped because the exhaust and cat had separated. It stayed that way for ages because I could never prioritize fixing it over my necessities. Prioritizing the feelings of people who hate loud cars is a luxury that I couldn't afford and feel no obligation to consider.

Some limit has to exist otherwise a few people will start making things as loud as humanly possible.

I wouldn't say I was "pretending", maybe I was making an assumption I shouldn't have made. And yes, I'll admit I don't understand the appeal, but appeal for one person is not worth misery for everyone else.

I'm very skeptical of your claim that people who hate it are a "small minority". I complain about this pretty regularly and I've never had anyone try to defend it. Anyway, you seem to be suggesting no one should care about small minorities. Autistic people are a small minority, so why should anyone else care about our problems? Babies are a small minority--why do we work so hard for them?

I understand that some people can't afford to fix it--although that is itself a problem. I'm mainly focused on the people who choose to do it.

Regarding pretending, you're not the only person I've seen offer that take and I've encountered people who insist on offering it even after being informed otherwise. Pretend seems like an appropriate word to describe the belief after the person has been informed of the actual motive.

It's rare for a small minority to effectively prioritize their issues. This is especially true when valid reasons exist to not give attention to those issues, like this specific one.

Some people hate bright colours but we wouldn't ban bright colours to accommodate those people's sensitivities, we'd tell them it's a them issue.

As for people not defending it, if you start by smearing anyone who enjoys loud exhausts as an as*hole it's possible people who might otherwise defend that cause choose to not engage with the judgment person who just insisted they're an as*hole. Why would they? What benefit will come from engaging with someone who's already decided you're an as*hole who needs to be punished?

I don't really think this discussion is going anywhere but some final thoughts:

Yes, pretending is an appropriate word for people who continue to disagree after being informed of the actual motive. This isn't what I was doing.

A valid reason not to ban bright colors is that they just exist and it's impossible to get rid of them. I don't consider "but I like it" to be a valid reason. No one ever got out of prison because they liked murdering people. (Yes, I know that's a very exaggerated analogy, and I'm not likening anyone to murderers. The analogy is that the harm you cause others exceeds the enjoyment you get for yourself.)

Lastly, I know this isn't a refutation to what you said, and it's not meant as a criticism, but I can't help mentioning it: you're arguing that no one would do the exact thing you're doing right now. More to the point, I never said I called anyone an as*hole (I don't), and the people I talk with tend to be reasonable (that is, argumentative) people who I trust will tell me if they disagree with me. That way we can have constructive debates that we all gain something from, rather like we're doing right now.

I'll let you have the last word if you want, but thanks for engaging with me. This is the kind of intelligent debate I was denied as a child because it drove my mom crazy.

Yes, that's me preemptively conceding that I'm much more difficult to use shame effectively against because I know I'm a highly disagreeable person and have made peace with that aspect of my personality.

Hopefully you don't feel I'm saying you personally framed it as though people who enjoy or drive loud cars are as*holes, because this isn't my first rodeo and I'm not only basing my observations on this one discussion. There's certain tropes that get dragged out regularly (overcompensation, motivated by desire for positive attention, etc) that almost always seem to come from people who've never actually engaged with car enthusiasts outside of maybe a few hostile exchanges.

Ironically people will say those things even when the obnoxious car they're complaining out is a loud subcompact that impresses no one except maybe a handful of fans of that specific brand. No one's impressed by a loud Geo Metro and no one expects to impress anyone in a loud Geo Metro, but you can rev the s**t out of that little 3 cylinder so it's fun from a driver engagement perspective (not to mention it sounds like half a Porsche 911 engine).

Personally, a part of the reason I favour making cars louder and less comfortable is specifically to increase the (mental) cost of operating them. The less driving is like sitting on your couch, the more people are likely to make an effort to limit overuse.

Although I will concede personal preference is a factor too, because driving something that's not entirely comfortable feels more engaging and makes it easier to stay focused on operating the car. One shouldn't be so relaxed that their mind can wander from the very important and possibly high stakes thing they're doing.




I'd say the harm of being exposed to some noise you dislike falls much closer to the harm caused by feeling like your eyes are being overstimulated rather than... you know, murder.

If someone's car is loud enough it's causing actual damage rather than just annoying you, they're probably going to be deaf within a few hours of driving it anyways so that problem should limit itself.

As a society there's a degree of give and take when it comes to tolerating behaviour we find annoying. I believe current regulations are a good balance. No one's allowed to drive something as loud as a race car, but putting up with a handful of cars that are as loud as bikes doesn't seem like too much to ask. Loud cars and loud bikes combined rarely represent more than a percentage or two of the total volume of cars and bikes, and loud bikes by far outnumber loud cars.

If the goal is to crack down on loud vehicles, I'd start with bikes and just keep custom cars within that range, whatever it's set to be.

I can't argue with that. (Well, I can, but not without becoming an internet troll.)



I can't argue with that either, other than to say that obviously hearing a brain-melting noise isn't comparable to murder, but having to hear it all the time has a not insignificant effect on me. Enough that if you're in a place where a lot of people will hear it, I really think it will do more harm than good.

Dammit! I can't stop myself! Alright, I'm actually done now.

They do it for themselves AND to show off to anyone within earshot. You know that old saying, "The loudness of a man's engine is INversely proportional to the size of his (blank)."

There's a neighbor who had a stroke years ago; his left leg is weak; left arm can't really use much. His old-looking car sounds like it doesn't have a muffler. After pulling out of the lot (after letting the loud engine run for five minutes every single time), he just high-tails it out of there, super loud when he does this. It's obviously his way of retaining some macho-ness, but he doesn't fool ME.

I have to wonder what kind of brain finds something "visceral" about creating needless noise pollution that is SO thundering loud, that I must tightly plug my ears whenever one of these boneheads drives by. I can hear them from quite a distance when I'm outside in the evening jogging or walking.

I can hear the motors INSIDE with the windows closed: either on motorcycles or cars. You can tell they're deliberately gunning it and speeding wherever possible. No thought whatsoever to how bloody-hell disturbing this is to hundreds and hundreds of people inside their homes. Yeah, good luck when it's time to buy the $5,000 hearing aids while everyone else your age can STILL hear decently.

And comparing this to bright colors is nuts. When I'm inside my home, any bright colors outside at the park, at a store, etc., don't intrude inside my home. But needless noise pollution from extremely thoughtless men trying to be macho DOES intrude. Moving to the mountains is not an option; so don't even go there.

You're literally using the canard I just called out as silly and uninformed, surely this is a sign of how informed the rest of your post will be. Beyond that, it's silly to associate driving in a spirited manner with machoism because women are pretty well represented among car fans and in amateur level motorsports.



Literally it's because vreee = dopamine. That's kinda the basis for most addictive behaviours. Usually people who've never done it don't get it so there's little point trying to explain. People who like cars tend to enjoy how they sound, so there's that aspect, but there's also that driving causes a Pavlovian response because moving quickly in general tends seems to be rewarding to the brain. The whole experience trains you to associate engine go vreee with dopamine.

You don't really need to be gunning it, you can hold 2nd until 85 even at part throttle.

Road cars are never loud enough for the driver's hearing to be at risk, even with a stripped out interior.
In a loud-ass race car you'd wear hearing protection.

Your neighbour's old ass car probably needs to get up to temperature before it has any stress placed on it. That's not uncommon with older engines, especially ones in higher states of tune compared to stock. It sounds like you're dunking on an old guy enjoying one of the last few vestiges of his youth. That's a cringe-worthy attitude.

I'm sorry it triggers your misophonia but I don't think we need to rebuild society around it. I really hate the sound of dogs barking, but ultimately it's a me problem just like this is a you problem.

I have never ever ever seen a female behind the wheel of any motor vehicle with a thundering engine. My neighbor is middle age; never said he was a senior. Road cars very much so can be loud enough to damage hearing. Maybe not from inside (I assume that's what you mean?), but to anyone it passes by, you'd better believe it. I don't have misophonia; I care about my hearing ability. I'm middle age and have excellent hearing, could hear better than people half my age. That's because I plug my ears whenever these boneheads roar by on their bikes or in their cars or mindlessly rev up their engines when the car is stationary such as at a gas station. You actually DON'T believe they do that for attention?

Yeah, they may love the sound, but it's like people who sneeze crazy loud: The more people within ear shot, the louder the sneeze. I wonder how many of these men would rev their engine over and over if they were in the middle of nowhere, nearest town 50 miles away.

I once lived on a street where a middle age man often revved up his bike engine for 20 minutes nonstop (no kidding here); it was unbelievably loud; it's illegal to jack up the pipes that way. You DO realize that a lot of these engines are illegally souped up, don't you? That fact alone makes me in the right. Anyways, the police got enough complaints that the man was told to do something about it. He got a horse box trailer; kept the bike in there to rev it up. It did a great job muffling the noise. You really believe his hearing isn't significantly damaged?

Want a dopamine fix from speed? Go inline skating down a hill. Makes no noise and you can actually feel yourself speeding through the air.

Yes! Thank you!



Nobody is suggesting people should be squished. The blog writer suggested that with modern technology, there might be more effective methods of preventing that outcome. I'll hold out for any sort of hope that one day that sound could go away!



After the last few years on social media, I find it all too conceivable that there's someone out there who *does* want to ban all bright colors and of course I'd be against that. But what if those bright colors were constantly bleeding into that person's home? Then they'd have my sympathies, because that's essentially what happens with the BEEP BEEP BEEP noise.

You can (apparently) argue back and forth about the motivation for having a loud car. But with an alarm, there's no argument -- literally the function of it is to alarm people. The problem with the backing up beeping noise is that it's alarming numerous, numerous people who aren't in any danger, very frequently, for extended periods of time. Furthermore, the blog author suggested (correctly, I believe) that the frequency of these alarms can reduce their effectiveness as people who work with them tune them out.

Also, here's a hypothetical scenario for you: what if the truck driver is sleep deprived because of a truck backing up beeping noise in their own neighborhood? Isn't that putting people in danger?

And if these vehicles backing up is so dangerous it requires a constant ear-piercing alarm to warn of it, shouldn't they maybe find a way to do it a little less often? Wouldn't that be the safest option? As the author said, I swear, they back up more often than they drive forward!