Credit: Your Best Digs/CC BY 2.0

The government is to trial the use of so-called ‘noise cameras’ in a bid to crack down on excessively loud vehicles.

The technology will measure sound levels of passing traffic. It could also, according to the Department for Transport, incorporate the use of automated number plate recognition cameras to enable prosecution of those whose vehicles exceed legal noise limits.

“Currently, enforcement is mainly reactive and relies on subjective judgement,” the DfT said. “The trials of the new technology will determine whether the legal noise limit has been breached by taking into account the class and speed of the vehicle relative to the location of the noise camera.”

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The DfT claimed that the trials are “not intended to target law-abiding drivers”.

“Noise cameras could work like speed cameras to target law-breaking drivers automatically,” the department added.

This could include motorists who rev their engine, or those who have modified their vehicles with illegal exhausts.

The pilot schemes, which will involve the deployment of a prototype specially commissioned by the government, are likely to take place at “several locations” around the UK between now and the end of 2019.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling said: “Noise pollution makes the lives of people in communities across Britain an absolute misery and has very serious health impacts. This is why I am determined to crack down on the nuisance drivers who blight our streets. New technology will help us lead the way in making our towns and cities quieter, and I look forward to seeing how these exciting new cameras could work.”