Noise Legislation

[Don]

From Hemmings e-Weekly Newsletter:

Loud Pipes annoy the living
“You meet the nicest people on a Honda,” the ads once said, a not-so-veiled reference to the straight exhausts currently favored by the daytime-stockbroker/weekend-hog-rider set. The ape hangars of the Easy Rider era may have gone the way of the CB whip antenna, but loud pipes seem to have thrived.

And increasingly, municipalities aren’t amused. In response to the absence of an enforceable federal noise pollution standard, cities and towns across the country this summer have been enacting their own legislation. Here is just a small sampling:

New York City: A minimum $440 fine for “a motorcycle on any public street or highway which is: (1) not equipped with a muffler to prevent excessive or unusual noise; (2) equipped with a muffler from which the baffle plates or screens have been removed or altered; (3) equipped with an exhaust device without internal baffles, known as straight pipes; or (4) equipped with an exhaust system that has been modified in a manner that will amplify or increase the noise emitted by the motor of such vehicle above that emitted by the exhaust system originally installed on the vehicle.”

Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Gives law officers noise-enforcement powers, and “make(s) unlawful the operation of motorcycles with improper exhaust systems on public rights of way, to prohibit using noise-creating devices on public rights of way in a manner that draws the public’s attention to the source of the noise.”

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: “The making of unnecessary noise, by or from a motor vehicle upon, near or adjacent to the streets or other public places in the City by horns, engine whistles, bells, sirens, radios, amplifying systems or otherwise, is declared to be a public nuisance.”

Denver, Colorado: “It is unlawful for any person or for any owner to allow any person to modify, tamper with, alter, or change any motor vehicle in any manner that causes the sound emitted from the motor vehicle to exceed the corresponding sound pressure level”; 82 decibels at 25 feet.
- By David Traver Adolphus