Loud motorcycles and cars becoming annoying | Umweltbundesamt

While the majority of new vehicles on Germany's roads are unobtrusive in terms of their noise, a growing segment of supposedly sporty vehicles is raising public ire. These vehicles, primarily motorcycles and sports cars, stand out from the background noise of flowing traffic and drown out the local soundscape. What is great sound for the drivers is often perceived by local residents as unbearable noise that is not only annoying but can also make them ill.

After the international noise approval regulations for motor vehicles were amended in recent years, UBA conducted a measurement programme to check whether the new regulations prevent extreme noise emissions. Three motorcycles and three cars known for their "sporty sound" were examined. The vehicles were tested both under the statutory type test conditions and under "worst case" conditions in practice outside the area monitored in the type test. It turned out that with the help of flaps and, in some cases, loudspeakers in the exhaust tract, the manufacturers' sound designers obviously succeeded in doing the balancing act of both complying with the noise limit under type-testing conditions and meeting the customer's wish for a specific sound in the road space outside the control area of the type-testing. "Noise protection and the hardships of noise-afflicted citizens are being undermined", said UBA's President Messner.

UBA is therefore proposing that the type-testing regulations be extended to include a noise cap that limits the noise in the vehicle's entire characteristic diagram. As the measurements show, this is because the test procedure, which has so far focused on local driving conditions, cannot effectively prevent particularly loud noise emissions.