[jasode]

>a rake and I would appreciate if more people would use one.

Most of the leaf blower noise in neighborhoods is cleaning up tiny grass clippings off of driveways and sidewalks instead of handling the Fall season's dead leaves, like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak5VoB-ceeU&t=0m06s

Rakes don't help with grass cuttings. People could use brooms to sweep up the grass but homeowners and lawn crews don't do it that way because -- like the rake -- it requires more work and takes a lot longer than using noisy blowers.

[fullstop]

Another option is a hose, but that may be considered more wasteful.

I have a leaf blower, and I use it for about 5 minutes a week in the summer to clear grass clippings from walkways after I mow. I don't like being "that guy", so I pretty much run around the yard with it in order to finish as quickly as possible.

I know that the electric leaf blowers are quieter, but my neighbor's makes a high pitched squeal which bothers me more. I think that she has some sort of condition, because she's literally using the thing for about three hours a day. I don't know how many battery packs she has, but she runs it until it dies, swaps the pack, and gets back to it. It's not a huge yard, maybe 1/3 of an acre, but she is compelled to get every blade of grass off of her driveway.

[collinvandyck76]

There's a guy in my neighborhood (who uses a backpack blower) and this is his main hobby. I really don't understand the appeal of doing what is a pretty monotonous task for such a long amount of time, given that in mere hours much of the pristine front yard moves back into "chaos".

I understand the satisfaction from being meticulous about things like this, but i don't understand the extreme end of it.

[8xeh]

Most of the leaf blower noise in my neighborhood is the one or two guys on the crew who's job it is to run the leaf blower while the other guys are doing the lawn mowing or edging.

If it was that guy's job to use a rake and broom instead of a leaf blower, the same amount of cleaning would be done.

[atlas_hugged]

Try doing that 12 hours a day 5-6 days a week for 1 year and report back your findings to us.