Braap Braap: California Wants To Punish Loud Cars

In the near future, when all ICE vehicles have been replaced with EVs, the streets of our major cities will be filled with the laughter of children, the ringing of bicycle bells, and the yodeling sounds of artisanal craft beer brewers, but until then we're quite satisfied with the roar of V8s, and the ear-piercing shrieks of early '90sHonda Civics. The exhaust sound of ICE vehicles has become atrademark of large American cities, but some are trying to kill the celebrated culture of loud exhausts. Last year we reported that the great city of New York was starting tofine motorists for loud exhaustsby usingspecial cameras, and now California has followed suit with its own regulations that aim to kill the appealing zing of internal combustion for good.

The state of California has officially approved a five-year automated enforcement pilot program that aims to punish vehicle owners with loud exhausts. If given the green light by Governor Gavin Newsom, the program will go into effect from January 1, 2023, and will be enforced in six yet-to-be-disclosed cities across the state. There is good and bad news for lovers of the loud: the actual threshold for loud car exhausts will remain the same at 95 decibels, but the manner in which the law is enforced will change. California will adopt a "sound-activated enforcement system" which is simply a sensor that activates when it hears a loud noise, and then takes a picture of the offending vehicle. The technology is still in its infancy, and there remain doubts regarding its ability to pinpoint offenders in traffic (except if you're the dude driving the purple Subaru WRX with the Eiffel Tower as a rear wing).