by Jose Apr 11, 2006 at 06:47 PM


Leafblower noise?? That is apples and oranges. You can knock on your
neighbor's door, and you have common interests with your neighbors.

Huh? That doesn't stop the noise. And usually the noise is coming from
whoever they hired, who aren't going to stop either. And it drones on
hour after hour, when one neighbor stops, the other starts. And it's a
whine that is very piercing (all the energy is located in a narrow band
of the spectrum) so a mile away even at low volume it is annoying.
Neighbors who blow leaves basically have the attitude "Its my right to
make noise" coupled with the "need" to blow the leaves instead of raking




Jose: Many communities have noise ordinances that target boom boxes,
harleys with straight pipes, leaf blowers etc. If there is noise that
exceeds the community thresholds, you can call the cops. If you started
blowing leaves in a suburb at 2 am, I'll bet the cops would show up. If
you circle in a Mooney at 1000 feet at 2 am, generating even more noise,
there is no penalty. And, the noise maker is completely anonymous.

As far as transportation cross subsidies: Yes, every time you cross a NYC
bridge in a car, you are subsidizing the subways. They get direct taxpayer
subsidies also. But I was talking about direct federal subsidies by
transporation mode: roadways are not subsidized measured by federal
income (gas taxes) vs outlays.

So, I don't think I am being inconsistent. And, I think some modes of
transportation should receive tax subsidies as they create a general
public good. IMO, GA should not fall into that category because the
subsidies are huge, it benefits an extremely small segment of society
(unlike most forms of mass transit that virtually everybody has used at
some point, and some use regularly), and much of it is not even for
transportation, but for recreation.