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Dear Noise Project Supporter,
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You're receiving this message because information you submitted to the Noise Project’s Community Noise Survey and / or contact form indicates that motor vehicles are a prevalent source of noise near your home — and the single most prevalent source of noise in the city. Based on the data collected through the noise survey, over 90% of Providence residents are exposed to excessive, unhealthy, unnecessary and illegal sound levels from vehicles.
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So we wanted to alert you to an opportunity to discuss the city’s mobile-noise problem, particularly from illegal modified mufflers — and a potential response: noise cameras — with Brown student researchers and other Providence residents on April 24 at the university’s School of Public Health.
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According to the most recent survey conducted by the Smiley administration, conducted in early 2024 after his first year in office, 40% of Providence residents remain unsatisfied with the excessive levels of noise in our community. And that sentiment is further borne out by the 5,600 noise complaints the Providence Police received in 2023 from all part of the city.*
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Earlier this year, Mayor Smiley announced his interest in having Providence join Newport and multiple U.S. cities such as Chicago, Miami, New York City, and Knoxville, TN — as well as Barcelona, London, Paris, and other cities around the world — in exploring the deployment of noise cameras.
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However, doing so will require a change in Rhode Island legislation, as well as funding by the city government, which we have not yet confirmed is even in the mayor’s recent budget proposal for the year (though it does anticipate revenue from what it calls “sound cameras”).
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If you are interested in discussing the adverse effects of vehicle noise in Providence, we invite you to attend the event on Wednesday, April 24, from 6:30–8:00 p.m. in Room 375 of Brown’s School of Public Health. Noise Project communications coordinator John Wilner is scheduled to speak as part of the event. An RSVP is “required” (likely for room and food capacity), but we’ve attended previous such events in the past without RSVPing.
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Among the topics of discussion will be:
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- Residents’ experience of vehicle noise — how often they hear it, what times of day, and how it disrupts resident’s sleep or other quiet enjoyment of their homes (including outside). For more information on vehicle noise, including modified mufflers and over-amplified stereo systems, visit the Vehicle Noise resources page on our website.
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Noise cameras as a partial solution — they are not meaningfully different from the speed and red-light cameras already deployed in Providence, and are far less intrusive than its Flock license-plate readers. The Noise Project’s view is that monitoring vehicle sound levels is not a qualitative change in the current use of technology in motor-vehicle enforcement, but could have a major impact on public health and well-being.
Those who claim that using a limited number of noise cameras to address illegally loud vehicles in fixed locations is intrusive should explain how the alternative — allowing an unlimited number of deliberately loud vehicles all over the city — is not more intrusive.
Similarly, those who cite potential bias in enforcing both Providence and Rhode Island vehicle-noise regulations should explain how using technology that is utterly incapable of considering a driver’s appearance, type of vehicle, or type of sound — and in fact relies solely on decibel readings — doesn’t actually reduce the likelihood of such bias.
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- Additional means of enforcement, which the Noise Project supports — these include prohibiting the sale / installation of illegal mufflers in Rhode Island, and conducting a public education campaign to increase awareness about the adverse health effects of noise, such as sleep deprivation, high blood pressure, cardiac disease, and more.
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* An average of more than 15 complaint per day, every single day of the year — and 100 more complaints than in 2022, under previous Mayor Jorge Elorza (as documented by the Providence Journal), who was not known for ever addressing or even mentioning noise.
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The all-volunteer Noise Project recently created a Vehicle Noise working group to address mobile noise sources in the city, and welcomes residents who want collaborate in that effort.
If you’re interested in helping to implement or promote any of the strategies described above — or devising alternative ones — please let us know using the volunteer form on our website.
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We appreciate your support for reducing noise in the city, and for the Noise Project’s
efforts to make our community a quieter and healthier place to live and work.
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“Noise is the new smoking”
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