"Noise comes in many varieties. It might be a neighbor's dog barking outside late at night, a raucous party underway next door, or someone using a leaf blower nearby. In the past when at home, one could often escape from such sounds by closing windows (in summer) and retreating to an inner sanctum. Today, however, cars equipped with exceedingly powerful sound amplifiers have rendered this means of escape futile because the amplified low-frequency beat is picked up by the walls of a building; in a sense, the building becomes one gigantic loudspeaker with each wall acting as a diaphragm. Cars with this equipment can often inject bass sound into homes at distances of half a mile or more, it would seem.
These boom-boxes on wheels should be banned because they are, at best, extremely annoying and painful intrusions into the private lives of many and, at worst, traffic safety hazards. They can interfere with the ability of all travelers to hear the sirens of emergency vehicles as well as provide an additional challenge for visually impaired pedestrians, who must often rely on their sense of hearing to navigate.
We urge our community to address the issue of noise pollution, with particular emphasis on the excessive noise created by these motor vehicles. Why should a small band of exhibitionists be permitted to hold our senses and sensibilities hostage? "

Richard M. Neumann
Helene Powers
Edward Hagelstein
Daryl G. LaFleur
(Northampton)