How to eradicate the noise nuisance caused by "bombing the streets", high mobility and difficulty in law enforcement and evidence collection

In recent years, a kind of noise coming from the road late at night and early in the morning has seriously disrupted the living environment of citizens. Some modified or high-power motor vehicles passed by quickly, and the harsh noise echoed on the empty road. The surrounding residents who hated it called it "bombing the streets."

However, "street bombing" behavior is highly mobile and difficult to monitor, enforce and obtain evidence, and has a tendency to become a "stubborn disease" of urban environmental governance.

On May 31, a reporter from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News noticed that among the 22 batches of petitions and reports submitted by the Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspection Team to Shanghai, many pointed directly at the problem of "bombing up streets."

Among them, on May 10, a mass petition report forwarded to Huangpu District by the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection Team No. 1 reported that in areas such as the intersection of Fuzhou Road and Hubei Road and Guangdong Road in Huangpu District, there was occasional noise from motorcycles that disturbed residents.

After receiving the transfer, the traffic police detachment of Huangpu Public Security Bureau immediately verified it. Through checking this year’s 110 police information and 12345 hotline, and randomly checking and playing back road surveillance videos of the past month, no high-speed motorcycle racing problems have been found on the roads in the above-mentioned areas. On May 10th and 11th, the Huangpu Public Security Department also organized police inspections of more than 30 motorcycles passing through Fuzhou Road and surrounding roads, and no illegal behavior of modifying the tail rows of vehicles to produce noise was found so far.

The law enforcement officers did not stop there. Knowing that the behavior of "bombing the streets" is extremely fluid, the traffic police detachment of the Huangpu Public Security Bureau organized a special campaign against "street bombings" by driving on the evening of May 12, and carried out a special campaign on Fuzhou Road, Guangdong Road and other key areas. Set up checkpoints in the area to carry out on-site inspections. That night, 13 motorcycles were seized that violated prohibition regulations and did not install license plates as required.

Traffic police conduct law enforcement inspections on Beijing East Road. Photo courtesy of Huangpu District Public Security Bureau

Eliminating the "street bombing" behavior will not be achieved overnight, and it places higher requirements on the ability of supervision and law enforcement. At present, Huangpu District is using a "combination punch" to carry out centralized rectification and precise crackdown on motorcycle traffic noise nuisance, including but not limited to detection and tracing of road noise pollution sources, and strict enforcement of illegal modifications of motor vehicles.

According to the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Control of Noise Pollution from Motor Vehicles" jointly issued by the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Shanghai will ban passenger cars with less than 9 seats with noise exceeding 80 decibels throughout the day starting from December 1, 2018. Driving on the roads of this city; from 21:00 to 7:00 the next day, motorcycles with noise exceeding 80 decibels are prohibited from driving on the roads of this city.

"On the surface, 'street bombing' is caused by noise pollution. In fact, part of the root of the problem lies in illegal modifications of motor vehicles. Timely crackdowns will help restore peace to the roads." Chen Qiyong, instructor of the first team of the Traffic Police Detachment of Huangpu Public Security Bureau, said, " Even if the "street bombing" does not reach 80 decibels, it will bring negative experiences to the surrounding people. Therefore, in addition to doing a good job in noise monitoring, we must also crack down on illegal modifications to avoid the generation of noise from the source.

According to the traffic police detachment of the Huangpu Public Security Bureau, since June last year, Huangpu District has investigated and punished 19 cases of motor vehicle noise exceeding the standard and 12 cases of illegal modification of motor vehicles.

At about 16:20 on May 23, Wang Yuxi, a policeman from the first team of the Traffic Police Detachment of the Huangpu Public Security Bureau, was patrolling to the intersection of Weihai Road and Chengdu North Road when he discovered an ordinary two-wheeled motorcycle that was suspected of being modified.

"At that time, the noise could be heard dozens of meters away. I stopped the motorcycle and inspected it and found that the exhaust pipe did not match the original one. It was suspected of illegal modification." Wang Yuxi said that according to the "Road Traffic Safety Law" , the driver was fined 150 yuan on the spot.

On-site law enforcement inspections. Photo courtesy of Huangpu District Public Security Bureau

In addition to attacking the root of the problem, improving the level of monitoring capabilities of daily noise and pollution sources is also an effective means to eliminate "bombing the streets".

Chen Qiyong said that law enforcement officers are using video surveillance, big data analysis and other means to grasp the dynamic number and driving patterns of potential "street bombers" to more accurately deploy police forces. Recently, Xintiandi, the Bund, People's Square and other scenic spots, downtown areas, internet celebrity check-in points and surrounding areas that are more lively at night have been included in the scope of key monitoring to increase the police attendance and management rates on key road sections.

"We also found a feature. Zhongshan East 1st Road, Zhongshan East 2nd Road, Beijing Road, Yan'an Road, Xizang Road, etc. all clearly prohibit motorcycles. Some 'street bombing' behaviors may be transferred to 'alternative roads' such as Henan Road and Guangdong Road. ." said Hu Yifei, head of the Vehicle Management Publicity Brigade of the Huangpu Public Security Bureau Traffic Police Detachment.

Eliminating "street bombing" behavior is inseparable from social governance. On May 31, reporters saw on Guangdong Road that the police from the traffic police detachment of the Huangpu Public Security Bureau communicated with merchants along the street about special measures to control road noise, and encouraged the public to actively participate in the supervision of relevant illegal activities and promptly report complaints to relevant departments.

Traffic police visited businesses and shops along Guangdong Road to discuss traffic noise control. Photo courtesy of Huangpu District Public Security Bureau