by Robert Carillio – Warren, Ohio chapter, Noise Free America
The Tribune Chronicle (www.tribune-chronicle.com)
October 21, 2007
DEAR EDITOR:
This is in response to the letter sent in by Donna Tallurico in last Sunday’s edition of the Tribune.
There are several noise issues in this town which need serious attention. The noise levels here are disproportionate to the size of the city. As an advocate for reasonable peace and quiet in the neighborhoods, I could not agree more. Noises ranging from boomcars, unnecessary and obsessive running of power tools such as gas powered dirt blowers (leaf blowers), fireworks, barking dogs, revving engines, yelling neighbors, and so on, are all escalating in too many parts of this town. If I were to address each of these sources of noise, I would need an entire page dedicated to this subject in the Tribune.
In Ms. Tallurico’s letter, she was addressing what she saw as too much focus on motorcycles making noise; however, motorcycles just happened to be the topic at the particular time and in no way does focusing on them alone mean that anybody who has written about noise in the past, is not aware of the many other increasing noise problems we have. If current noise laws in this town were consistently and often enforced, we would not be having this letter debate right now. It is because laws are not consistently enforced that some people seem to think it is then their ‘‘freedom’’ to create such noise; or as long as someone who makes noise such as on a motorcycle wraps themselves up in some charitable cause that it suddenly makes it OK to violate existing noise ordinances. So what next? Boomcars for Babies? Chainsaws for Children? Jackhammers for Jesus?
Illegally modified exhaust systems — from whatever source — and loud, thumping stereo systems are among the objects of the most frequent complaints to law enforcement. Hence, these sources are the most commonly talked about or ‘‘picked on.’’ The people who make such noise have brought this negative attention upon themselves.
The notion that Ms. Tallurico uses to rationalize loud motorcycle noise which suggests that this noise ‘‘is a part of the history of the bike’’ is absurd. This ideology simply reflects a culture that all too often does not accept responsibility or accountability for their actions, and instead chooses to decorate the offensive manner with some warm and cozy tone usually involving the words freedom, tradition, history or charity.
Again, the fact on the loud motorcycle pipes (which is the topic of discussion) is that if these pipes are modified in any way and the certification logo of exhaust system approval (by federal standards) on the chassis of the bike does not match a certification logo that can be found on the mufflers, then the pipes and sounds coming from them are illegal, and in fact not the way the bike comes from the manufacturer. Many people choose to make their bikes three times louder than what they are when coming from the manufacturer, and this is illegal and for a good reason. A distinct sound is perhaps part of the history of a certain bike but excessive brain splitting, disturbing noise is not.