It cuts down on sonic pollution by making ice cream trucks with infernal insipid muzak a losing business model.

I am not sure when, exactly, the ice cream trucks disappeared. For a while I thought maybe I had just gotten so used to them I was tuning them out. Or maybe I was just conveniently absent from the house when they came around ... for several weeks in a row ... even though I often didn't even go out for days at a time...

I think it was the ice cream pushcarts that tipped me off. Human-powered ice cream dispensing vehicles ring little bells. I don't mind this: it is much less annoying than the gasoline-powered ice cream dispensing vehicles' blaring music. But one evening, as I noticed the little ringing bell going by, it struck me that I hadn't heard the ice cream trucks for a while. So I started paying attention. Sure enough: the trucks had disappeared, but the pushcarts were coming around more often. Score two for the environment.

More recently, a new ice cream truck has appeared in the neighborhood. (Or maybe it's an old one with a refitted sound system.) In any case, while the music is almost as ear-wormy as before, it's considerably less annoying. Both the melodies and the tonal quality of the new music are better than the old music. So it still sticks in your head, but it's not nearly as unpleasant to have it there. And it comes around a lot less frequently.

So, I don't think I'll be pelting any figs at bypassing vehicles any time soon. Now if only we could find a way to convince the neighbors to stop parking in front of the gate...