If two New York City lawmakers are successful, the long, droning siren from police cars, fire trucks and ambulances that has been part of the city’s soundtrack for generations would be happen to be replaced by a high-low wail similar to what’s heard on the streets of London and Paris.
Their factors for the switch: The European-style siren is less shrill and annoying and adds less to noise pollution.
“I’ve been hearing from constituents complaining that the present sirens in New York are a high-pitched, continuous noise — a nuisance,” states Helen Rosenthal, an Upper West Side Democrat and among the sponsors of the proposal.
Noise is consistently one of the most frequent complaints to the city’s hotline, with a number of calls about the loud sirens that blare 24/7, wake people from their slumber and leads dogs to howl in unison.
“Europeanizing” New York sirens would not modify the decibel level — still topping out at approximately 118 — but would lower the frequency and thus make the sirens less shrill however still ear-catching enough to attract attention.
“The alternating high-low siren needed by this legislation is not as piercing,” stated co-sponsor Carlina Rivera, a Manhattan Democrat.
If authorized in a council vote —which has yet to be planned— the legislation would need sirens on all emergency vehicles to transition under a two-year period.
Buzz about the bill even made it to previous week’s NBC “Saturday Night Live,” where a “Weekend Update” anchor joked that with the European-style siren, saying that “You can spend your ride in the ambulance pretending you have universal health care.”
City council members are checking closely at the experience of the city’s Mount Sinai Health System, which currently utilizes the two-tone siren in its 25 ambulances that make about 100,000 trips annually. The switch was made last year after decades of complaints from citizens of the Upper East Side home of the hospital complex.
During community board meetings, Mount Sinai’s Emergency Medical Services Director Joseph Davis played different siren options to find out which one locals preferred.
“People hated them all,” Davis stated, “but the ‘high-low’ was least intrusive. It didn’t have that piercing sound.”
