'Honk You,' Advocates Say to Car Alarm Owners
am New York
By Chuck Bennett

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Angry and sleep-deprived New Yorkers brought some noise to the steps of City Hall yesterday to rally against car alarms.

Several dozen advocates associated with Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group, urged Council Speaker Gifford Miller to act quickly to ban the devices which they call useless. Aaron Friedman, founder of silentmajorityny.org, told amNewYork that they want to pressure Miller into action.

Friedman, a 25-year-old music student at Columbia University who got politically active after car alarms haunted his Inwood apartment, said the the alarms are absolutely useless. He cited a 1997 insurance industry study that found no overall theft reductions for cars with alarms, while citing statistics that show car alarms are a chief annoyance in New York City.

Already, Councilmembers John Liu (D-Flushing) and Eva Moskowitz (D-Upper East Side) have introduced bills limiting car alarms.
Moskowitz goes so far as to require all car alarms be disarmed and provides a procedure for residents to report blaring alarms.

Friedman said Miller has been stalling on the matter. Miller's office did not return repeated calls for comment.

Liu, whose bill bans sale and installation of car alarms in the five boroughs but won't fine existing car alarm owners, told amNewYork, "Unfortunately car alarms don't achieve anything. All they do is annoy the hell out of people." The City Council is expected to hold hearings on the issue in June.

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