Protect passengers from acoustic violence

11 January 2021, 08:26

We have a draft law No. 3006 #AtTheCommitteeConsideration, which proposes to amend Article 40 of the Law of Ukraine “On Road Transport” in order to protect passengers from intrusive music and audio product, which they did not order. The co-authors of the draft law are 16 deputies, representatives of various political forces. They are convinced that acoustic violence in Ukrainian transport has already become a mass problem and needs to be regulated at the legislative level.

This problem is especially acute in road passenger transport of all types, when music, movies, radio programs are broadcast loudly and without the permission of passengers. It is not only about inconvenience while travelling, sometimes for many hours, it is also that people are forced to listen to obsessive sounds that they did not order. This situation violates people's natural right to their own private space and silence. In addition, protests against acoustic violence, disputes over language, genre, and the content of an audiovisual product broadcast in a vehicle lead to conflicts between passengers and drivers or among themselves. The proposed draft aims to solve this problem.

What does the draft law No. 3006 offer?

The draft law proposes to amend Article 40 of the Law of Ukraine “On Road Transport”.

-    In particular, to establish a ban on broadcasting music, sound of movies or other sound signals in the regular civil transport vehicles, except for information about the trip.
-    Audio can only be transmitted to individual passenger headphones.
-    In a taxi or during irregular bus transportation, such broadcasting is allowed with the consent of all passengers.

The draft law instructs the executive authorities to amend the rules of carriage on all modes of passenger transport.