Quieter O'ahu Comments To Representative Mark Hashem on HB225

3/1/2017

Quieter O'ahu <quieteroahu@gmail.com>
to Mark, hashem2, hashem1-Kenneth, Kathy

Aloha Representative Hashem,

Just wanted to provide you a quick update on our petition supporting HB225. We have passed the 125 signatures mark for our petition and feel confident that over the next couple of weeks we will cross the 200 signature mark.

We appreciate your efforts to advance this bill. As you have doubtlessly seen from petition signer comments, the residents of O'ahu have had their fill of out-of-control noise by the few that would disrupt quality of life for the many. It must stop. While HB225 alone will likely not achieve complete mitigation of unneccessary loud noise, it is a good start.

I've attached a markup of HB225 with our comments on how the language might be improved. Specifically, we have numerous ordinances and statues on the books today that are not enforced by HPD because they use a decibel standard for measuring offenses. HPD is quick to point out that they do not have measurement equipment, nor personnel trained in the use of measurement equipment, nor do they plan to acquire equipment and train their officers. We suggest adoption of language used in "The Plainly Audible Standard" which is increasingly gaining in popularity in municipalities across the mainland. It simply require that noise be heard at or beyond a given distance from the source to constitute an offense. Below are links to the plainly audible standard, and we provide a link to the New York City Noise Guidelines for examples of how it has been implemented there.

Mahalo again for your support of this legislation. We hope to generate sufficient numbers to convince the legislature that O'ahu and Hawai'i resident have had enough of this excessive motorcycle, motor scooter, moped, and automobile noise.

A Quieter O'ahu

Our Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/support-hawaii-bill-hb225-to-s-t-o-p-the-out-of-control-noise-from-motorcycles-scooters-mopeds

The Plainly Audible Standard: http://www.noisefree.org/boomcars/Plainly-Audible-Noise-Ordinance-Standard.pdf

New York City Noise Guide: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/noise_code_guide.pdf

4 Comments

Leslie Baltzar

3/5/2017 10:35:37 am

I'm So glad to see something is being done ! We're here for the winter and the only thing bad here is that horrible muffler noise. Let me know where there is a petition to sign. THANK YOU !

John astonian

3/5/2017 05:08:25 pm

I'm just gonna start taking legal action against each person with an obnoxious exhaust on their motorcycle. Want to save lives? Get a car.
Snap a photo of the license plate and let's get some legal action against these assholes.

Jules

3/5/2017 07:08:09 pm

Good idea, John--I've been doing this very inconsistently.

Would it be possible for Quieter Oahu to solicit from its readers, license plate photos of loud motorbikes/cycles, vehicles (including boom cars) to generate a list and tabulate the # and frequency of offenders per month or year or some time frame? This list would ideally be sent to the HPD and Rep Mark Hashem. And to protect the privacy of the driver, photos or license plates would never be published to the web.

Lastly, I would caution against taking photos while driving or at least being careful while doing so (e.g.: only taking a photo while at a stoplight), but I think this information would be useful to HPD on so many levels--it would give them a head-start on enforcing HB 225.

Paul Meyer

3/11/2017 02:31:36 pm

Read a comment somewhere that some elements in our community are starting their own petition to squelch any regulation of excessive vehicle noise. Sure hope this alternative petition doesn't get any traction.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

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Author

The author is just another Hawai'i resident who is tired of seeing the proliferation of noise on our beautiful O'ahu going unchecked.