I agree. Hopefully, electric cars will become more common in the near future, which will help reduce this problem.

Harleys are the biggest offenders. Motorcycles have much smaller engines than cars--they don't need to be so loud-I guess some people just want to be looked at.

Why only test it annually. Like a speed camera, a sound camerawould not be difficult to rig that would take a digital video ofa vehicle emmitting over the decibel limit. This gets much morecomplex with low-frequency - below 20Hz, vibrations from the tireson the ground, as low frequency is difficult to measure.

Zermatt switzerland has a noise ordnance and no petrol engines areallowed in the city limits. This makes for the most pleasant atmosphere. But your point needs to be considered in a larger light. I want to know the decibel outputs of every product that is for sale in the market from lawnmowers to leafblowers - are noise ordnances the solution?

great ideas and info sweetheart.

i think ordinances are a smaller part of the solution - only for the showoffs that take off their muffler (so despite the small number, it is still important), but the main problem is manufacturers - what a waste to replace them all when it would be so easy to do it right in the first place

i am so with you on the lawn mowers. as it stands, i absolutely hate them

Anything that makes government more intrusive on my life and costs me money too is something I'm not likely to be in favor of.

In Kansas, we don't have any emmissions testing ever. For that matter, we don't have any testing of cars mandated by government except for VIN number verification for just-purchased out-of-state vehicles.

You might think 'are the cars going around without brakes, wheels falling off, etc', but really, testing can't catch most failures and they're really the owner's problem either way. When we had inspections, I never had one where the shop didn't insist I spend 100 bucks on tires or a muffler or something else, whether I needed it or not. Also, you'll not duplicate the street-volumes if the engine isn't loaded or unloaded like on the street.

We do have loudness laws however and they apply to stereos too. Testing exhaust and stereo volume is easily be done by police on the street, in the real world. Just like a radar-gun, if you go by and you register on the richter scale on his tester, you get a ticket.

We don't need a yearly test that can be faked by the drag racer that leaves the testing facility and then 'pulls out all the stops'

Dynamometers are used in emission tests, they put the vehicle under load.

Anything that makes government more intrusive on my life... what would you do if they opened a concert next door to you and it played elton john so loud it rattled your windows, every day, forever.

I straight piped my '99 Cummins. It sounds absolutely obnoxious when I step on it... mmmm....