§ Wing-Commander Jamesasked the Minister of Transport what steps he is taking to deal with motor vehicles and motor cycles now upon the roads equipped with inadequate silencers; and what further steps he is taking to check this continuing nuisance?
§ Captain WallaceAs a result of discussions following the report of the Departmental Committee on Noise in the Operation of Mechanically Propelled Vehicles, the manufacturers of motor cycles undertook in 1936 that no motor cycle producing an offensive degree of noise would in future be put on the market. A similar undertaking was given by the manufacturers of motor cars.
Such an arrangement seems to me preferable to the making of regulations imposing a precise maximum limit of noise which it would in any case be impracticable to enforce without the use of a large number of delicate noise-measuring instruments.
The police can take action with regard to inadequate silencers; more than 10,000 noise offences were dealt with by them during 1937, over 6,000 of them by prosecution.
I may add that arrangements have also been made with the manufacturers of motor horns with a view to the elimination of the more noisy types.