https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/08/what-should-a-...
This is a pretty interesting article about how some of the audial engineers are approaching the issue in one of the recent New Yorkers.
P.S. In the EU at least the legally mandated AVAS is actually a carefully studied sound with a mix of specific frequencies aimed at being clearly distinguishable regardless of age (can be heard by old and young eardrums), has specific attenuation parameters (doesn't travel too far but also doesn't dissipate too close), can be relatively easily pinpointed as a source, works up to a relatively low speed before rolling noises become prevalent, and doesn't go above 75dB(A) (just enough to be audible in city landscapes). It's pretty much the Star Trek Enterprise engine futuristic sound which you'd be hard pressed to find disturbing in any way.
I just read the article, electronic vehicles are very quiet, this has been my experience biking around NYC as well.
So they're adding sounds. It's a no brainer.
But sure, whatever cynical take you have on the entire situation is probably fine too.
I'd be fine with them adding sounds to the electric bikes that zoom past me in the bike lane without _ever_ giving me notice that they're coming up on my side. I find it frustrating every time.
Anything short of seizure and scrapping for parts seems insufficient.
Edit: There are consequences for shops that modify vehicles: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/washin...
Feels very similar to the whole loud harley davidson thing, where it's supposedly illegal to make them louder, and yet you hear absurdly loud ones all the time.
Paris has also tried automating fines for loud cars: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paris-try-using-sound-sensors...
Edit: Drilling the third hole = colloquial expression for altering a firearm in a manner that violates federal law.
For instance:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/exq9yk/meet-the-man-who-dril...
The thing I don't get is why the police, always eager to write that $100 speeding ticket, don't see these trucks as a goldmine.
Think a few more steps ahead. A few too many instances of "police write $500 ticket to Jose the scrapper who's three owners removed from the one who modified the truck and is just trying to feed his family" is a great way to get the law changed. They'd rather have the law on the books so they can use it in their toolbox of slimy plea-bargain BS than actually enforce it and risk losing it.
There's also institutional inertia at play. When it comes to revenue enforcement police are all about volume vs margin. They have a whole body of case law that makes it easy to just write speeding, rolling stop and DUI tickets and be nearly 100% assured those tickets will result in money for the state or department and the officers themselves are very well trained at writing those tickets properly. So without external political pressure they just keep doing what they're good at.
Equipment violation tickets in most states usually have some sort of "prove u fixed it before the court date" clause that makes writing a $500 equipment violation less lucrative on average than writing 3-5 $100 speeding tickets.
And all this is before you consider the relative availability of speeders to ticket vs coal rolling trucks (many of which can act normal just by changing the tune in software).
TL;DR the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Maybe, just maybe, we have the wrong people in our police forces.
Agreed. It should be illegal to make electric muscle cars.
If we just had a carbon tax, things would be so much more reasonable.