Brussels sends too-noisy cars and bikes to inspection

If it were up to Brussels Mobility Minister Elke Van den Brandt (Groen), too-loud cars and motorbikes in the Brussels Region could be sent directly to a testing station for a technical inspection. According to her party colleague and MP Lotte Stoops, the effect of noise on our health is still too often underestimated. “Noise pollution is a silent killer, so we must make noise around it.”

Accelerating engines, noise from boom cars, and ‘creatively’ processed exhausts attack the liveability of our neighborhoods and keep Brussels residents awake, literally and figuratively, argues Lotte Stoops. “Many noise violations can also be traced to just a handful of perpetrators,” she said.

Special equipment

Van den Brandt announced that the technical inspections were given equipment that would allow them to check whether cars, motorbikes, and mopeds cause noise pollution. With this, she wants to make it possible for the police to refer persons to the technical inspection.

This means they can take drivers off the street and send them to the technical inspection in case of suspected banging pot terror. If the vehicle is in order anyway, the cost of the technical inspection may not be charged to the person concerned. “I am currently working on a framework agreement on that,” the Minister said.

Coordinated police actions

Stoops also calls for coordinated police action against anti-social drivers who scare Brussels residents day and night. She also points out that strict control and sanctions on noise pollution were one of the recommendations of the consultation committee on noise pollution earlier this year.

Stoops is also looking forward to the results of Brussels Environment’s pilot project with noise radars.

Other cities are also considering measures against ‘exhaust pipe terror’. As in Amsterdam, the city council of Ghent is considering using noise flashpoints against show-offs who drive their cars or motorbikes far too loudly through the streets.

A new police regulation also makes it possible to impound nuisance vehicles there as an administrative preventive measure. The Malmedy-Stavelot police zone also already treated several motorcyclists to a fine for excess dB. To get a Euro5 type approval, a motorbike may produce a maximum of 77 dB when tested on the road. The maximum noise emission of vehicles in Belgium is set at 80 dB.