Category: leaf blowers

Yesterday, while riding my bicycle on the street, I was distracted by a kid with a leaf blower. He had it aimed at me, so I was about to move into the middle of the street when a speeding car passed close by me. Usually, I would have heard the car coming up behind me, but, as you know, leaf blowers are deafening. I could have gotten run over!

Leaf blowing is ubiquitous in most communities, and many have banned the use of them.

Spend an afternoon riding around on your bicycle and just see if you don’t get dirt blown into your face. The noise is penetrating, too. If you worked at home, like many people now do, you’d get the noise and dust from all directions, not only from yards on either side but from across the street and sometimes from blocks away. These are not the neighbors per se using these machines, but young boys employed by yard services.

What would I have to do to get the City to consider banning the use of leaf blowers?

P.S. The infernal racket is outside my window as I write this. I’ll stop what I’m doing to shut all the windows, but I don’t think it’s my job to personally confront all of the noise and pollution offenders.