Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Motorcycles are significantly louder than cars. This is the result of a study commissioned by the Ministry of Transport. In 2020 and 2021, measurements were taken on around 100 routes with a lot of motorcycle traffic in Baden-Württemberg in order to obtain data, according to a press release in Stuttgart on Friday. During the investigations, the volume of passing vehicles, the number and the speed of the vehicles were determined.
The result: about every third motorcycle is louder than 90 decibels when driving past, and it is four percent for cars. Almost every third motorcycle driving by is as loud as a jackhammer or a circular saw, the ministry stated. In contrast, only 13 percent of motorcycles are quieter than 80 decibels, and 32 percent of cars.
Noise researcher Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp said on the “Day Against Noise” on April 27 that noise is defined by a noise that doesn’t even have to be loud, but is undesirable. In general, it can be said that very loud noises that are over 85 decibels and impede communication are relatively uniformly perceived as noise when it comes to ambient noise. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that environmental noise, particularly traffic noise in Western Europe, is responsible for the loss of more than a million years of healthy life to disability or premature mortality each year.
