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A City Council bill that was to outlaw the sale and installation of car alarms in New York City was vetoed yesterday by Mayor Bloomberg. The bill, approved by the City Council in late July, hoped to ban the "sale and installation of audible alarms that are motion-activated or that sound for longer than three minutes".
Councilman John Liu of Flushing said that there is no proof the alarms work and that "there is an overabundance of evidence that blaring car alarms annoy the living daylights out of people." That's one astute council-member. Flushing residents be proud.
Bloomberg opposed the bill because alarms installed by car manufacturers or outside the city were not outlawed. His letter to the City Clerk said the NYPD "firmly believes audible car alarms are a necessary component" for theft prevention.
The only alarm that actually scares Gothamist is the Viper. And that's because they have a huge snake that hisses in their commercials.
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i propose we all park in front of bloomberg's mansion and regale him with a chorus of car alarms at 3 a.m. every day until he changes his mind.
Tricky Issue to me. One One hand, I've actualy had my Alarm go off and chased some kids who broke in away from my car. (Mine turns off after a minute)
On the Other Hand, Does anyone have Statistics to show if they work or Not??
Also, My insurance gives me a break for having an Alarm. If City Hall wants to stop them, IMO, take away the $Money$ incentive for having one.
Any word on whether the Council will override his veto? They have enough votes to do so.
The thing about this bill is that it only bans the sale and installation of alarms that are *already* illegal for use within NYC -- alarms that blare for more than 3 minutes, and which are triggered by something other than direct contact with a car.
And Bloomberg, of course, is full of it. Car alarms do not work -- there are studies to show this. There is NO evidence that they do work, but his administration keeps parroting the same vague statements about "layers of protection" and such.
It's ridiculous that we can't even pass this weak bill, much less institute a complete ban.
Please write your councilmember asking them to override Bloomberg's veto! You can contact them via:
http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/index.cfm
S.D.,
The only unbiased study done on the effectiveness of car alarms was done by an insurance industry think-tank, the Highway Loss Data Institute, which found that they do not work. You can read that study here:
http://www.silentmajorityny.org/links/hldi-article.pdf
The report that Transportation Alternatives and Silent Majority did can be found here:
http://www.transalt.org/info/caralarms/report.pdf
The discount you get on audible car alarms is mandated by State law, not NYC. The Council was supposed to pass a Resolution asking the State to change this law, but I don't know what happened with that. If you have other, effective anti-theft devices, you will see a much bigger discount.
Here's some more info on the State Insurance law:
http://www.silentmajorityny.org/links/alarmdiscount.pdf
Bring back Giuliani! He'll ban all car alarms from the City just to piss everyone off.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the Info! I'll read it when I have the Chance (@ work now).
Does anyone remember Bloomberg's ban on noise, ie no barking dogs for more than 10 minutes, no music, no loud talking? Seems to me that he's contradicting himself again.
...and that's why he's an assclown.