The Swiss government has announced that revving up your engine unnecessarily, making your motorcycle roar just because it can, or emitting exhaust noise will cost you more in the future.
In a pilot project in Geneva 2023, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) installed noise detection radars in certain parts of the city to measure the noise level of passing vehicles.
They recorded up to 200 vehicles per day, with some emitting noise levels of up to 117 decibels, far exceeding the limit of 82 decibels, which is the highest permissible.
Over 70% of those vehicles were motorcycles, with the rest almost evenly distributed between cars and trucks.
FOEN found these figures disturbing because “noise stresses and makes people ill,” adding that “in Switzerland, around one million people, or one in seven, are exposed to harmful or annoying noise, and road traffic is by far the main culprit.”
Acting on these findings, the Federal Council has decided to tighten certain existing regulations and increase the fines for generating “avoidable” noise pollution on Swiss roads.
The Federal Council has tightened up regulations for the relevant ordinance amendments.
To begin with, it banned noises generated by exhaust pipes of automobiles, motorcycles, and other vehicles.
Secondly, the Federal Council decided to increase the existing sanctions; for instance, the fine for running the engine unnecessarily will be increased from 60 to 80 francs.
Though the pilot project in Geneva was successful in identifying noisy vehicles, these devices will not be routinely installed in Swiss cities, or at least not yet.
That’s because “the creation of the legal bases necessary for the installation of noise radars is encountering certain obstacles,” the Federal Council said.
Among the reasons cited by the government is “the existence of different legal requirements for noise emission limits, depending on the age and category of the vehicle, and the absence of a display device in the vehicle to identify when a noise limit has been exceeded.”
This is why the Federal Council “has decided to examine the feasibility [for setting up radars] in more detail before creating a possible mandate for the development of concrete legal bases.”
What you’ll get: