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Donate: Can you make a financial contribution to support this campaign? Or give your support to Transportation Alternatives. This group works to improve the quality of life in New York by stopping car alarms and honking.

Favorite Comments

I think that the meter should take a dollar off each time the cabbie honks.

Stop the honking in New York City

Please join this petition to help reduce the noise and honking in New York City.

If you are tired of taxis honking for no other reason than their frustration over NYC traffic - then please sign the petition. to reclaim our city. Improve your quality of live - let Bloomberg know that you had enough! Let's curb the noise generated from cars and motorcycles!

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About
The idea of Stop the Honking came out of frustration over the steady increase in noise that I experienced over the past 6 years. It seems that there are more car alarms that no one notices and more taxis driving recklessly and honking more than ever before. I have simply had enough. I have tried asking people parked outside my apartment very nicely to stop honking or to stop playing with their car alarm for an hour straight - only to be attacked three times. I have tried calling the police, also with no effect, the police mandate is just to send people along and who can do that for every time someone honks. As I am writing this on a rainy Saturday a car alarm out side has been going off non-stop since around 8 am. And I found that I am not alone, most people I speak to are fed up with the noise and honking. And other are speaking up I especially enjoyed the article by Aaron Naparstek on nypress.com. A great quote from the article: "Horn-blasting is profoundly anti-social behavior." I could not agree more. Please visit Aaron's site honku.org.

I thought to myself that the noise is really starting to affect the quality of life in New York and I needed to do something about it. The “No Honking” signs on some streets are as effective as the self-service border patrols at some of our borders (This is NOT about border security). And the Mayors comments about curbing car alarms seems years ago and nothing happened. So what could I do? Well the petition seemed like a place to start. If I could get enough petitions then maybe that would force the city do start doing something. So help out by signing the petition!

Before anyone gets bent out of shape over this let me call out a few points. First; cars honking, car alarms, motorcycles with mufflers removed and cars NOT OK. It is NOT part of the New York experience, people do NOT honk in front on their OWN homes or neighborhoods and people in every other city in the country manage to get on with their lives without honking. Second; this is NOT about going after hard working cab drivers. It is perfectly possible to drive a cab and make a living without honking and driving recklessly causing others to honk. And finally third; it’s the law. A car horn is for emergencies, not for expressing your frustration over New York City traffic. If people can behave civilized anywhere else, then it should be possible here. But try to say something and you will probably have an experience like the one described on New York Hack.

Cabbies who honk their horn for a reason other than safety are breaking the law. Just because it is in NYC is no excuse to let it go. I find myself several times a year telling a cabbie to stop honking the horn. Usually I get verbally abused for wanting to keep my hearing and sanity. Once, one driver tried to run me down in the crosswalk after I told him not to honk.

Why the donations? I can make the site myself, but it does cost money to run it and I would like to print some flyers. If you have a problem with it don’t make a donation, it really does not affect the purpose of the petition. Why the ads? Same deal.


What should be done
So what should be done? How do we curb honking, car alarms and other noise pollution?

NYPD does have a "Reclaiming the Roads of New York" Strategy, but I am just not seeing it, or the effect of it, and Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the bill so it does not have much teeth. A search on NYC.gov. showed no results for "Reclaiming the Roads of New York". Mayor Bloomberg issued a press release in 2005 with the headline "MAYOR BLOOMBERG PRESSES CITY COUNCIL TO PASS NOISE CODE" so I wonder why the Mayor would veto this bill? Must not be a lot of honking taxis where he lives. Former Mayor Rudi Giuliani (like him or not) showed us the benefits of cracking down on the small stuff. With your support we can get the Mayor to throw some weight behind this effort. The "Reclaiming the Roads of New York" Strategy consistes of the following steps:

According to this initiative COPS Will Target:

• Drivers who run red lights and parked cars that obstruct crosswalks.
• Taxi enforcement.
• Ensuring the safety of cyclists and enforcing laws against reckless cycling.

• Quality of life conditions, like honking horns, car alarms, "boombox cars," and loud motorcycles.

• Bus lane enforcement.
• Double parking, obstructing bus stops, and blocking the box.

I have a couple of specific suggestions, but welcome yours. Just leave a comment, even without signing the petition.

• Fine taxi drivers for honking. Only way I can see to stop this behavior is by hitting people’s wallets using the existing law. The police should enforce existing laws and stop taxis when they honk. Why does a taxi need to be driving down a street with it's horn going non stop? There are plenty of “hotspots” where the police can position themselves to issue fines. I would also suggest that a point is added to people’s licenses. A taxi drivers second offenses should prompt a fine to the taxi owner as well. If the city cracked down one month and fined 100-200 taxis, waited one month and cracked down again, then two months until the next crack down, then I bet people would get the message. Taxi drivers all eat at the same stops, they talk, they will get the message. GIVE THE POLICE THE MANDATE AND DIRECTION TO STOP HONKING. And as another side note; the police are not all fighting terrorism. They still patrol the streets and enforce the laws, stopping someone from honking is not taking away from the war on terror.
• Fine taxi drivers for driving recklessly. I don’t think a long explanation is needed here? Crossing 3 lanes of traffic for a fare, stopping in the middle of an intersection or in moving traffic should be a no brainier?
• Tow cars with alarms going off. No one cares; no one stops someone at a car with the alarm going off. We should be able to stop a car from sitting at the curb with the alarm going for hours generating more noise than a bull horn. You need a permit is you want to roam the streets with one of those.
• Stop, fine or impound motorcycles with the mufflers removed. Did you know this? The Harleys you hear roaming making more sounds than a Concorde is not built like that; the mufflers are removed for maximum noise. Fine by me, just not in the middle of a city where millions of other people also have to live. The only purpose of these motorcycles in to extend the drivers manhood. When these bikes roar down my street it sets off every single car alarm in the street.

This is just a couple of suggestions, I welcome yours. Just leave a comment, even without signing the petition.

I also urge you to join or support Transportation Alternatives. This group advocates and lobbies to reduce noise from honking and car alarms in New York. Read about the status of their campaign to Ban Car Alarms Now!

At Transportation Alternatives I found this great piece of information about getting Honking Fine Signs on your street (not that they seem to have any effect: Call 311 and request a Honking Fine sign. Also, write your community board and councilmember and report the problem and ask them to help you get more police enforcement and signs.

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