When I was in high school, and I’d play my bedroom stereo on something like 4, my dad would come into my room, and just mouth words as though he couldn’t be heard over the blaring music. Other times, he’d come in and say, “Do you know how many hair cells on your basilar membrane you’re killing?”
I loved my dad, and now that I’m much, much older now, I appreciate what he was saying, and fortunately, learned my lesson, and do just about everything I can to protect my hearing. I play the TV and radio at just above threshold level – certainly loud enough to hear it, but not so loud as to disturb anyone else, and definitely not loud enough to damage my hearing.
Snowboarder Bo, pot, kettle…you called people in this thread real pricks, but turn around and say you don’t care if you annoy other people, and you don’t want to hear other people’s music as much as they probably don’t want to hear yours. WTF?
I don’t run into this with cars very much, but people on the subway with their iPods up so loud that I can hear the lyrics to their music from 3 seats over fall in the same category as far as I’m concerned. Sure they aren’t keeping me awake at night with their noise but they are disturbing my ride to work which is still pretty bad. I’m glad I don’t have to contend with the noise at night when I am trying to sleep though. I feel bad for all the people who have to deal with that kind of thing.
I live in an “up and coming” neighborhood. Here’s what we do: we call the police. Every single time. And ask your neighbors to call too. This may vary by jurisdiction, but in this city the police work the numbers. They track the number of complaints. So many calls on a property… eventually they can escalate the penalties. We’ve had people evicted from the four-family across the street for noise and other violations. This is because a group of us in different houses on the block developed a phone tree, and we all called the police on every loud booming car, every honking horn, every screaming harpy. According to the local captain in our neighborhood, give the police the numbers to work with and they can also justify moving more resources into your neighborhood. Squeaky wheel, and all that.
On the flip side: I did crank my stereo one memorable time. I was about to head into two days of meetings for this library job I used to have. I was dreading being trapped for hours on end with a bunch of fussy, grey, perfectionistic, middle-aged ladies for hours on end. Librarian ladies. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Must. Have. Noise! So in an attempt to innoculate myself, I sat in the parking lot beforehand and cranked “Holla Back Girl” for a few minutes. Who knew the Subaru had that much bass? It was awesome.
I was driving down the expressway and started to feel a vibration running through my car. I thought whats going wrong,tire ,tranny or what. Then I noticed it was a regular beat. The car next to had his radio on so loudly that my car vibrated. I took solace knowing he would be deaf soon enough. Then of course he would have a reason to play it loud.
Why not ear phones?
For those of you who have said it’s no big deal at a red light:
I live at the intersection of a six-lane road (3 in each direction) with a stoplight. I hear those 20-30 seconds of loud music constantly. The worst is the thumping base, but I also get rock, country, norteño— you name it, at all hours of the day. Any single one would be fine, no big deal, but the never-ending assholery makes me nuts.
It does no good to call the police; the offender would be miles away, and in Los Angeles there are guaranteed to be higher-priority things than noise at a busy intersection.
As soon as I stop being poor, I’ll move. Until then, I have no alternative but wearing earplugs in my own home day and night.
I’m lucky. We’ve found a house close to Ft. Bragg that is in a nice neighborhood. Really quiet. Even the kids that play in the yard next door keep their noises at a level that isn’t annoying.
But then most everyone here is retired military or still in. I’d imagine any jackass driving through here blasting music would find his sweet audio system crammed up his ass before he reached the end of the street.
Dr. Drake, that sucks. I never considered how the noise afected people in buildings when people do that at lights.
I’ve never seen anyone get pulled over for it except once and that was on military post. When that happens you get fined but it will show up on the report every commander on the base gets. So when you get back to work they’re gonna wanna talk to you. They can actually restrict you from driving on post for it.
I don’t think you’re alone in that! I was exaggerating a tiny bit — I do wear earplugs to read, to write, and to sleep, but otherwise I just deal. It is frustrating when the radios outside three floors below drown out MY radio or T.V.
I use them when I am at the track, rather than park my truck alongside and just leve the stereo cranked. But it’s illegal in NV to drive with headphones or earbuds in. Most states have this law, I think.
And at home, I couldn’t move about and do stuff with headphones in. Besides, I’m in my own home.
You should definitely call the police. If they are violating noise ordinances, they will be forced to reduce volume or they will be ticketed/arrested for disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, failure to obey, etc.
But let the police handle it, and don’t give your name to the police. Explain that you are a neighbor and don’t wish to be retaliated against. I’m sure the police will understand and will be happy to send a squad car.
The people I was referring to were the people threatening others, and specifically me, with bodily harm or property damage. People like this:
The thing with types of music was at work. Work is not “my time”, it belongs to the client who has hired me (us). It’s not a party, it’s work. Different situations call for different behaviour.
Whatever happened to the concept of trying not to impose yourself on others? I assume that most people don’t want to see, smell, touch, taste or hear me. So I don’t wear my Abe Lincoln hat to the theatre, I don’t rub up against them on the subway, I don’t throw on shitloads of cologne, I don’t (insert something about taste here), and I don’t blare my music where others can hear it.
My needs or wants don’t supercede those of others.