A wakeup call for car alarms: Bans planned
The National Post
By David Menzies

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REE-ARR! REE-ARR! REE-ARR! OOO! OOO! OOO! Repeat.

Consider the not-so-melodic chime of the modern-day car alarm. Worse than the screech of fingernails on a blackboard and almost as disturbing as a Howard Dean non-victory cry, wailing car alarms have emerged -- much like discarded coffee cups and dog excrement upon city sidewalks -- as a contemporary fixture of urban life.

Often, these devices erupt for no apparent reason. Sometimes, the timing of the eruptions could not be worse, be it during a serene summer Sunday afternoon or during the wee hours of the morning. And to what end? Statistical and anecdotal evidence indicates car alarms are about as effective as wings on a fish. (Just what is a passerby supposed to do upon hearing a car alarm, anyway?) Yet, the racket continues unabated.

But after years of enduring unwanted sonic assaults, frazzled urbanites are fighting back. A backlash against car alarms is brewing as a handful of North American municipalities are now looking at banning these ghastly gadgets outright.

An anti-car alarm bylaw cannot arrive soon enough for Aaron Friedman, a New York-based consultant with Transportation Alternatives, a grassroots advocacy group.

Mr. Friedman first became involved in the campaign against car alarms after being repeatedly woken in the middle of the night due to wailing alarms emanating from cars parked on his street. "I'd look out my window and there was absolutely nobody on the street -- it was absurd," he says.

Transportation Alternatives has actively campaigned for a ban of the devices, and although the idea was initially dismissed, there is a very good chance New York City may ban the sale, installation and use of audible car alarms in the months ahead.

A bill proposing such an initiative was recently introduced by a New York City councillor, and Mr. Friedman says the bill could receive final hearing as early as March (although it would take several more months before the drafting and approval of a ratified bylaw.)

Even so, it appears a car alarm ban being passed and made into law is a done deal. Mr. Friedman notes that 24 of New York's 51 city councillors have co-sponsored the bill and, although a mayoral veto could kill the initiative, Mr. Friedman says such a move would be "highly unlikely."

Certainly the case for banning audible car alarms is compelling -- and popular. In a recent survey, 75% of 800 New Yorkers polled said car alarms interfere with their sleep and 90% said car alarms diminish their quality of life.

Public distaste for car alarms is understandable, given that some alarms exceed 125 decibels. At such a volume, says the World Health Organization, car alarms can actually lead to increased levels of stress hormone and the elevation of resting blood pressure.

The New York Police Department also takes a dim view of audible car alarms.

In a NYPD booklet released 10 years ago, the police labelled audible car alarms an "annoying and sometimes unbearable disturbance for residents in their homes."

The pamphlet notes that audible car alarms "frequently go off for no apparent reason" and, as one of the "signs that no one cares," such devices "invite both further disorder and serious crime."

Ironically, Mr. Friedman says, there is evidence suggesting that car alarms may actually create crime. For example, last year in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Williamsburg, two cars were purposely set ablaze after their alarms kept triggering. There are several other stories of cars being severely vandalized in New York due to alarms spontaneously erupting.

Mr. Friedman notes the "only unbiased study ever done on the subject" -- one conducted by the U.S. insurance industry -- indicates that car alarms "do absolutely nothing" in stopping car thieves.

On this side of the border, Vancouver may emerge as the first Canadian jurisdiction to ban audible car alarms.

Hans Schmid, a Vancouver resident and member of the advocacy group Right to a Quiet Society -- which is pushing for a ban -- says he pines for the day when audible car alarms will be illegal. "We've had numerous experiences in our neighbourhood where a car alarm was set so sensitively that even a pedestrian walking past the car would trigger it," he says. "It [car alarm noise] hurts the whole neighbourhood."

Tim Stevenson, a Vancouver councillor, agrees, and he plans to propose a citywide ban of these devices shortly. "I've asked city staff to report on the pros and cons of banning audible alarms," he says, noting the report should be completed by the end of next month. "I suspect the evidence [supporting a ban] will be compelling."

Mr. Stevenson says that instead of being a deterrent, car alarms are worse than nothing because they give a false sense of security to vehicle owners.

And, like many people in an urban environment, Mr. Stevenson has his own tales of woe regarding car alarms. The councillor lives in Vancouver's west end, one of the most densely populated areas in North America due to the preponderance of high-rise apartment buildings. "When one of these car alarms goes off, the noise just reverberates against the buildings," he says.

"The noise from just one alarm going off can wake up literally thousands of people."

Mr. Stevenson also points to a study indicating that between 95% and 99% of all car alarm eruptions are false alarms.

"They [audible car alarms] have no effect on crime -- they're worse than useless," he says. Indeed, despite the proliferation of car alarms in Vancouver, more than 18,000 vehicles were stolen in the Vancouver area last year.

However, Mr. Stevenson says that, if all goes according to plan, Vancouver may have a car alarm ban in place as early as next year.

However, not everyone supports car alarm bans. Vista, Calif.-based Directed Electronics Inc. -- which manufactures such car alarm brands as Viper, Hornet and Python -- is actively lobbying against bans.

K.C. Bean, legal affairs and intellectual property director for Directed Electronics, says recent engineering innovations in car alarms have led to a huge reduction in the frequency of false alarms. And, he says, car alarms serve as an effective deterrent against car thieves, noting car theft rates in the U.S. have declined during the past decade.

But Mr. Friedman says it's wrong to draw a direct correlation between declining car theft and car alarm proliferation. He says that in the past 10 years there has also been a preponderance of "far more effective" anti-car theft technologies such as engine immobilizers, tracking systems and silent pagers.

As well, he says approximately 80% of stolen cars are pilfered by professional car thieves who know how to deactivate an audible car alarm in seconds.

Both Mr. Friedman and Mr. Schmid remain hopeful that New York and Vancouver will follow jurisdictions in other countries and ban the alarms. Mr. Friedman says 33 Italian cities have already banned audible car alarms, and bans are being considered in Moscow, Hawaii and Brisbane, Australia.

"Once a major North American city like New York or Vancouver goes through with a ban, you'll see. Other cities will follow, too."

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