this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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Instead of just electrifying vehicles, cities should be investing in alternative methods of transportation. This article is by the Scientific Foresight Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), a EU's own think tank.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (4 children)

A recent study found that an unmuffled scooter driving through Paris at 3am can wake up 10,000 people.

So sure, scooters have low emission but I would like to see a ban on non-electric scooters, at least during certain hours.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Related fun fact: most of the noise cars produce at highway speeds is from tire noise, not from engines.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

The related fun fact to that would be that high-pitched sounds are more annoying and perceived to be louder than low frequency sounds with the same db.

I’m sure my sleep is more disrupted living in a city with an occasional 2-stroke engine screaming by than it would be if I lived next to a highway with that relatively constant and relatively distant ambient tire noise.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The scooters they mention in the article are the e-scooters you ride standing up in the bike lane. Not mopeds.

I also think mopeds are a good replacement to cars, much more appropriate for 1-2 people in urban areas. But it needs to be the quieter models. The two-stroke-engine ones are just really too loud for a city. (and they burn motor oil as well as gas)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The scooters they mention in the article are the e-scooters you ride standing up in the bike lane.

No they are not. That makes no sense. Stand-up e-scooters are relatively quiet. Quotes from the article (emphasis added):

“worst of all, the high-pitched wail of motor scooters that speed by every few seconds.”

“Motorcycles and scooters — often with their exhaust systems illegally modified to boost noise and power”

“The noise can be ear-splitting,”

Obviously you would not describe a stand-up scooter as ear-splitting or capable of waking someone up. They’re talking about gas small gas combustion engines, most of which are the worst variety on scooters: 2-stroke.

Or if you meant the OP’s article is talking about e-scooters, that article actually covered both:

“Weight rates are usually over 10 times more favourable for the average motorbike or scooter and, of course, even better for lighter vehicles such as electric bicycles or kick-scooters.”

My reaction was to the idea that motor scooters are more favorable by a factor of 10 due to the weight -- which is true, but my criteria is more complex than just ecocide-avoidance… I want my sleep too!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

True, I was talking about OP's article but you're also right that they mention both. I was thinking of the mentioned ban of scooters in Paris, this one only refers to the stand up e-scooters.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The European Union should push electric motor scooters and allow them 55 kph (km/h). Gas-driven motor scooters are only allowed 45 kph. They should be discouraged by higher taxes as they are in Asia.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Why did you write "kph" if you are aware of the correct "km/h"?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Thank you, yes

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Muffled scooters are still fucking loud.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

And what, only wake up 8,000 people instead? I’ve never heard an unmuffled one, but those little 50 cc fuckers are screaming loud in the high pitch frequencies - a perfect recipe for wakefulness. I often wake up when one of those assholes drives within a block of me at night. It doesn’t even have to traverse my street.

Even if it wakes 5,000 people, who then take 1 hr on avg to return to sleep, 5,000 man hours per scooter per day of lost sleep has to have a measurable loss of productivity and even quality of life.