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A Selection of Car Alarm Resources Comprehensive Articles on Car Alarms Car alarms have been the subject of only a few major articles in the popular and academic press. Brian Anderson's Let's Ban Car Alarms is superbly argued and very readable. (He has recently written two updates to the story, here and here.) Steven Brautigam's Rethinking the Regulation of Car Horn and Car Alarm Noise: An Incentive-Based Proposal to Help Restore Civility to Cities looks at the serious environmental effects of noise pollution from car alarms, and gives a thoughtful and scholarly critique of attempts to control the noise. And John Tierney has fought against car alarms for years from the pages of the New York Times. His articles on car alarm noise include:
In 1997, the non-profit Highway Loss Data Institute published a study entitled "Insurance Industry Analyses and the Prevention of Motor Vehicle Theft" (available here). Here's what they say about car alarms: There are a variety of antitheft and tracking systems on the market with costs ranging from basic audible alarms costing $50 to sophisticated tracking systems with $30 monthly fees. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of many of these devices is questionable. The sensitivity of audible alarms to touch or movement, for example, provokes a "boy who cried wolf" reaction. When a car alarm goes off, people tend not to react because the alarms activate so frequently for reasons other than actual theft. HLDI studies show no overall reduction in theft losses for vehicles with such alarms.The Gotham Gazette recently published my own views on the car alarm problem. A few searches in old newspapers reveal the early history of the car alarm. For articles about our New York campaign, see the Press Clips section of this website. |
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