ISLAMABAD: The police on Saturday banned heavy bikes from being driven in the capital’s residential areas at night.

The Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) has said that the ban was imposed to counter noise pollution around residential areas and hospitals at night-time following a number of complaints.

All heavy bikes – sport and cruisers – and normal bikes that are modified to produce noise are banned from being driven on roads in and around residential areas, and roads adjacent to them, between 9pm and 6am, an ITP officer said. There is no ban on driving these vehicles on highways, the officer added.

He said noise pollution has been rising gradually in the capital for the last couple of months. A number of residents and hospital administrations have approached the police and lodged complaints against motorists driving heavy bikes that produce noise around their homes and health institutes.

The administrations of hospitals on Jinnah Avenue and F-10 lodged complaints that their patients, including those with heart disease, were disturbed by the sound produced by these vehicles at night. The officer said such noise pollution puts heart patients at high risk.

Complaints of disturbed sleep from elders, ailing individuals and children, were also received. The officer said people gather with heavy bikes in different parts of the capital late at night, including in and around F-7, F-6, F-10 and on Margalla Road, Jinnah Avenue, 9th Avenue, 7th Avenue and the expressway. The riders race and do motorcycle stunts, and are mostly youngsters.

However, Dr Khizer Hussain, who owns a cruiser motorcycle, told Dawn this was “a ban on our freedom”.

He said there was a big difference between sports bikes and cruiser bikes. Sports bikes, he said, are used by young people, while cruisers are driven by people between their late 30s and 50s in the capital.

He said people who ride cruiser motorcycles do so to enjoy the ride of a heavy bike, adding that they usually drive in groups, making long drives that start early in the morning and end by noon on Sundays.

He said precautionary measures such as helmets and safety gears are necessary to join the group of cruiser motorcyclists, adding: “These bikes also produce noise, but it is natural.”

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2018