Tuesday, January 08, 2008 Malig: Nauseatingly loud motorcycles and tricycles By Jun A. Malig Cognition
IN SEVERAL parts of the Philippines and in some other countries, motorcycles, and tricycles that make annoyingly loud exhaust sound are being banned from the highways and residential areas.
The rationale for this policy, of course, is very obvious. Other motorists, pedestrians, and residents have the right to be protected from the noise pollution coming from the custom-made loud exhaust systems of mini-motorbikes and public utility tricycles.
The citizenry has the right to be protected against the nerve-racking noise being produced by the designed to be furiously loud two or three-wheeled vehicles.
There were many instances in various parts of Pampanga where scuffles and violent confrontations triggered by loud exhaust sound.
Ask anybody -- except, of course, the insensitive ones who design or own earsplitting motorcycles or tricycles -- and you'd know that everybody hates annoyingly loud mufflers.
If the members of the Provincial Board or the members of the City or
Municipal Councils are hesitant or fail to pass ordinances against these nauseatingly loud motorcycles and tricycles, perhaps barangay officials can do it by themselves through grassroots-level measures.
It is no longer uncommon nowadays to hear a lot of these noisy motorcycles from a few blocks away, when they are accelerating rapidly.
"There are a lot of motorcycles that are extremely loud," a barangay peacekeeper in Mabalacat told this columnist on New Year's Day.
I readily agreed. At around 9:00 p.m. last December 31, a group of men almost lynched a motorcycle-riding teenager in Barangay Dau for passing them several times with his ultra loud muffler.
The intervention of a respected senior citizen in the area saved the young man from serious physical injuries.
As I cited in one of my columns some months ago, in my hometown Mabalacat, where hundreds, if not thousands, of motorcycles and tricycles are the new "kings" of the road, agitating noise pollution has become a major problem.
Most of the reckless drivers in my hometown are youngsters who travel "fastly and furiously" along barangay and national roads without life-saving helmets.
Some are older men who probably think of themselves as still "young and restless" who still crave for attention.
Their motorcycles and tricycles are usually equipped with deafening exhaust system that make loud, irritating sounds.
Some responsible tricycle operators and drivers' associations prevent their members from installing loud mufflers.
They even encourage their members to use exhaust silencers as a gesture of consideration to their passengers and residents in their respective areas, especially during nighttime.
There are also some local government units that do not give franchise to tricycles that have no exhaust silencers. Evidently, my hometown Mabalacat is not one of them.
