Jimmy Fund fundraiser roars through area

The end is noble; the means is noise pollution.

Last night I was downtown, JP later in the day and then in the Fenway around 9:45 PM. Motorcycles with wake the dead pipes were everywhere. In Fenway there were 15 or 20 riding on The Fenway over to Park Drive. The noise serves no positive social purpose (unless proving machismo (regardless of actual sex) is a positive social purpose. Yet I know plenty of bicyclists who have bigger, as Ben Franklin would say, stones, than adult children who have to rev through the city to show their stuff.

But then we also have our eardrums massaged by boom boom cars, boom boxes and the smaller and nicer version of boom boxes on the T (aka, cell phones). Or folks such as the fellow who was pulling his boom boom box on a child's red cart. If not for being plain annoying it was cute.

But then if ya can't beat 'em join 'em. If it's okay to lay a blanket of club and hip hop music at 300 watts of pure ear shattering sound then perhaps it's time too carry around 300 watt boom boom boxes playing Beethoven and Mahler symphonies.

Seems to be attention seeking behavior for those who aren't Kardashians, Hiltons, or Twitterati. They claim "loud pipes save lives", which I can understand, but rather they and cyclists get some loud air horns to use only as needed. As for performance, modern 450 lb. motorcycles are pushing 150-200 hp, as much or more than most 3,000 lb. cars, so 5-10% more power isn't needed at all on the street. However, on archaic, underpowered brands of motorcycles, the temptation is grater to run without mufflers and catalytic converters.