When is it Noise?

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

I work in the city of Columbus, Indiana and its’ city council recently approved a new noise ordinance.

This action was intended to modernize noise regulations and make them more enforceable.

City officials say the changes were “in the works for years” and involved lots of research by city attorneys, the council’s ordinance review committee with input from the police department and code enforcement.

I guess the old law made references to “steam whistles” and “phonographs”.

Definitely from a by-gone era.

Don’t often heat those steam whistles much these days.

What I do hear are those small vehicles with heavily-tinted windows with a sound system that I can often feel before I actually hear them.

Wanna bet garbage trucks picking up and emptying dumpsters might have been one of the factors forcing city officials to “listen” to changing the noise laws?

The house the Fosters reside in backs up to Interstate 65.

We have been familiar with “white noise” for over 30 years.

“White noise” can be defined as a “random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density”.

The fact is the time we most notice the traffic sound is when something disrupts it.

To us, the silence can be deafening.

The new law in Columbus makes it unlawful for anyone to “make, continue or cause to be made or continued any loud, unnecessary, unusual or raucous noise or any noise which either annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others within the city limits”.

Whew! That’s a mouthful!

Hope I didn’t type it too loud.

If you recklessly, knowingly or intentionally make “unreasonable noise” and continue to do so after being ordered to stop by a law officer, you are in violation of the disorderly conduct guidelines in Indiana state law.

That would count as a warning.

After your warning, next is a$100 fine, followed by a $500 smack in the wallet for the next boo-boo and you could be assessed a $1,000 fine if you still haven’t gotten the message.

Construction, demolition, maintenance as well as production or repairs that create “loud, unnecessary and unreasonable noise is limited to weekdays from 7A-8P and 8A-8P on weekends.

The state of Indiana says “quiet hours” are 10P-7A.

The new Columbus standard says “yelling or shouting on public streets” is a no-no from 11P-7A.

Might put a crimp in welcoming in the New Year but I’m sure we can get the city to look the other way for that evening.

If there was a sound ordinance in Greenland in 1972, I would have violated it when I placed a large speaker outside the radio station door and played “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (The theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey”) to echo through the hills of the frozen tundra.

All the talk about AI makes me think of the supercomputer HAL 9000 who was to monitor the astronauts on their lengthy space journey.

The sounds just echoed forever across the icy lake by the radio station in the frigid Arctic darkness.

Our broadcast facility was located about 3 miles from the main base.

(By he way, there may have been beer involved in my actions that night.)

In Columbus, Indiana, loudspeakers and amplifiers producing sound “cast upon the public streets” are also covered in these new regulations so I shant repeat my U.S. Air Force stunt locally.

Noise is “sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional or harmful, considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties.”

When it comes to noise, there are 4 types; continuous, intermittent, impulsive and low frequency.

Generally speaking, anything above 65 decibels is “a nuisance” and any sound above 75 decibels is “unacceptable”.

Just for reference, a typical gas lawn mower produces 85-95 decibels of sound.

But to me, the sound of a lawn mower running is a pleasant sound.

A beautiful noise?

No, that was Neil Diamond’s 1976 hit.

“It’s a beautiful noise

and it’s a sound that I love.

And it fits me as well

as a hand in a glove.

Yes it does. Yes it does.

What a beautiful noise

coming up from the park.

It’s the song of the kids and it plays until dark”.

Well, it used to…when I was a kid.