Motorcyclists and drivers who create a racket with their engines will be fined €135 using “sound cameras” that entered trial service on the outskirts of Paris today.
Barbara Pompili, the environment minister, launched the first automatic acoustic detector on a stretch of winding road in the Vallée de la Chevreuse, a haunt for weekend motorcyclists in rolling woodland 25 miles southwest of the capital. In the coming weeks Paris, Lyons and four other cities will install the devices, which are nicknamed Méduses (jellyfish) because of the set of microphones protruding below them.
Motoring groups are upset over what they see as the latest attempt by the state to curtail their freedom, but the government cites public support for measures to control excess noise.
“Noise has
