Abstract
THERE is evidence that Great Britain is becoming noise conscious; and we have had occasion during the last few years to refer to the subject of noise measurement and noise control as conducted at the National Physical Laboratory and elsewhere. Certain directions in which traffic noise might well receive the attention of the Government were put before the Anti-Noise League at its recent meeting at Oxford (see NATURE of July 28, p. 149). As from August 27, the Minister of Transport has now decreed a zone of silence for the London area, the hooting of horns being entirely prohibited at night (between 11.30 p.m. and 7 a.m.) within a radius of five miles from King Charles's statue at Charing Cross. London Transport is also instructing its tram drivers not to use gongs in the prescribed area. To judge by the experience of Paris, Brussels and Rome, where no increase in road accidents is reported as the result of similar measures, the experiment is likely to be wholly successful, and relief from, at any rate, one type of noise will be experienced by the area in question. It is understood that similar zones of silence will be set up in other parts of the country.
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Traffic Noise and the Ministry of Transport. Nature 134, 315 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134315a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134315a0