Noisy mufflers are disturbing the peace

Society is being assaulted daily by a small number of selfish drivers who act out an assault, with impunity, every time they start their car or motorcycle engines. Their weapon is aftermarket mufflers, which they purchase and install, knowing exactly the resultant thunderous roar or high-pitch screaming. The high-pitch “chainsaw on steroids” or the volcanic explosive rumbling are an assault on our hearing.

Police cruisers and Drive Clean Stations should be outfitted with decibel readers, which are very low-tech and inexpensive devices. Public reporting of licence numbers of alleged offenders should then require police to administer a “decibel emission test.”

Some may get annoyed enough to not want to keep swapping out their legal mufflers for illegal ones. Fines have always been a traditional deterrent — a fine of between $1,000 and $5,000 probably would eliminate all but the most hard core offenders. Why are they even legal to sell? Is there an upper limit to what we will put up with? Like, maybe the equivalent of being 10 meters from a full throttle Boeing 747 for no longer than five second intervals?

And please don’t believe that nonsensical cliché: “Loud pipes, save lives.” How long would it take police to stop such noise if it was in a backyard, schoolyard or park? Just because they are not stationary isn’t a justification. I’m sure most municipalities, especially in the U.S., have formulated and solved this problem years ago. Or do we just “put up and shut-up”? J.B. Barrett, Toronto