Stop the Noise

Noise from motorcycles and sports cars have increased in London over the last decade.

Leaving your window open on a sunny night is no longer an option for people who don't want to be woken up by someone who has intentionally made their motorbike/car noisier than it needs to be.

Motorcyclists with loud exhausts wear especially designed ear plugs to protect their hearing from their own exhaust pipes. But pedestrians, cyclists, children and old people simply have to put up with with it.

You may know the feeling, as you walk along the street, suddenly the loud bang of a motorbike or sports-car revs up right behind you from nowhere. That feeling is the stress hormone cortisol being released into your blood stream. Research from universities including Oxford and Imperial College has found that that unnecessary stress from traffic noise has become one of the country's most significant urban health threats, increasing the prevalence of heart disease, stroke and even diabetes.

This is all the more frustrating because the motorbikes and cars that are making the most noise were built to regulation with mufflers, and then illegally modified to make them as noisy as possible. This is not just an avoidable problem, it's a problem that has been deliberately created just because a few people like it at the expense of everybody else's mental and physical health.