Oct 02, 2024
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An Albuquerque City Councilor is taking another look at how to crack down on loud vehicles.  A noise camera was installed last week along a busy Albuquerque street to see if it could successfully identify cars breaking noise level rules.       "I'm excited, I mean this is something that a lot of people have asked about. Regular complaints about the noise," said Councilor Joaquin Baca, Albuquerque City Council.     Balloon Fiesta Forecast: Warm, calm weather expected for the first weekend Last week, Councilor Joaquin Baca partnered with University of New Mexico professor Nick Ferenchak, to install a noise camera for 48 hours on Coal near Cornell Drive to see if it could collect accurate data. Ferenchak designed the cameras for his local company called “Not-A-Loud." "The first step was to install sound level meters all up and down the Lead/ Coal corridor and we wanted to understand how often exceptionally loud cars drive up and down the corridor," said Nick Ferenchak, President of Not-A-Loud & Professor at UNM.            The cameras are designed to detect vehicle sounds louder than 80 decibels which is the limit set in Bernalillo County.  "On average over the entire corridor, we're seeing one of these vehicles at about every eight minutes at any one point along the corridor," said Ferenchak.  This isn't the first time Albuquerque city leaders have considered noise cameras. City councilors called for a pilot program to test the idea, but last year, the Albuquerque Police Department said the available technology wasn't "ready for prime-time".  "They feel like it can only work well on a two-lane street, same issues if there are two cars side by side, there's cars front and back there will be issue with determining which car was the target that violated whatever prescribed standard," said Deputy Chief Michael Smathers, Albuquerque Police Department.            However, Ferenchak says his design solves that problem, enabling the cameras to capture which vehicle was too loud.   "Concerns are definitely warranted but that's why we're treating this as a pilot program. We collected data, and we now better understand the problem. We better understand the pluses and the minuses in the technology, and we can move forward from there," said Ferenchak.  KRQE News 13 reached out to APD, who said they haven't assessed this specific camera yet, and they are still exploring other options. 
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