Prague Drunks Compete to Light Up Noise Meter

The new noise meter on Prague’s Dlouha street is reportedly being used by inebriated pedestrians to see who can be the loudest

Jason Pirodsky

Written by Jason Pirodsky Published on 18.09.2018 11:44:58 (updated on 18.09.2018) Reading time: 1 minute

A few weeks ago, we wrote about a new noise meter that was installed on the island crossing at V Kolkovně, Kozí, Masná and Dlouhá streets in Prague, one of the city’s busiest intersections for late-night revelers.

While the monitor turned from green to red if the levels crossed 60 decibels, it wasn’t exactly clear how the city would enforce the noise limit other than giving pedestrians a live reading of how loud they were being.

“Wow. Excellent motivation for all the drunks and crawlers to always test it and compete,” David H. commented on Facebook.

And according to readers of Metro.cz, that prediction was entirely accurate.

“Not only are there drunks here now, but they compete to see who can get more decibels on the display,” wrote Metro.cz reader Petr.

And it’s not only the drunks that try to be the light up the noise meter.

“I’ve even seen two motorbikes compete to see who has the loudest machine,” the reader added.

It’s clear that there’s a noise problem in the city center: according to Metro.cz, Prague 1 City Hall receives numerous noise complaints every day.

How to solve the issue, however, is not so clear. Officials realize that dispatching police to the scene when the noise meter turns red isn’t realistic, but they’ve installed the meters to give residents and visitors an accurate reading of the situation in the area.

If initial reports are any indication, however, the new noise meters may have also inadvertently exacerbated the problem.

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