To the Editor:
Although not unique to greater Ocala, ridiculously loud cars and trucks are a serious problem here that degrades our quality of life. With the area’s rapidly growing population, heavier traffic and explosive development, having to put up with this staccato ear-shattering racket every day just creates more stress. And noise-induced stress has been medically proven to be harmful to health.
Our sonic plague comes from thoughtless, self-aggrandizing drivers for whom making as much engine noise as possible lets them think they’re behind the wheel of something ferocious — when they’re usually not. In fact, their ride is typically just an older economy car or a pickup truck that’s had a few modifications done but can still lose a drag race to a late-model Kia. Of course, first among such modifications is making the vehicle as obnoxiously loud as possible.
I’ve got nothing against driving something with plenty of horses under the hood, and have owned a few of those cars myself over the years. But the irony is that a factory exhaust system on a performance car makes a pleasing throaty sound that’s not overly loud, whereas the modified exhausts used by these flagrant noise polluters generate an ultra-high-decibel, hellish din that’s like an endless chain of giant firecrackers going off.
More than once I’ve been about to walk into the Publix at Canopy Oaks when one of these atrocious vehicles accelerates along Highway 200, and the noise coming at me from 500 feet away is so loud it’s pain inducing. What’s more, I live in a quiet community far enough from 200 that I don’t hear its traffic, except when some noise terrorist at the wheel comes roaring along that road. And if that happens late at night, my sleep is immediately interrupted (which is another adverse impact on human health).
But there’s hope for some improvement. Florida’s legislature has passed a new statute set to go into effect on July 1st that changes the way law enforcement can address excessive vehicle engine noise.
I had often wondered why cops and deputies aren’t doing more to reduce this endless assault on our ears, but in reading about the new law I learned that, previously, a decibel meter had to be used to actually measure a violator’s noise. So envision a traffic stop of a super loud car or truck, where the officer has to get out his decibel device, turn it on and set it up, and expect the driver to cooperate in measuring the sound levels at various RPMs. And all while parked on a highway as other traffic is whizzing by. So no wonder it’s seemed like an unappealing process by officers and therefore seldom undertaken. But the new law says a citation can be written for excessive noise based solely on the officer’s judgment. That’s right, no more requirement for decibel-meter measurements. Hallelujah.
Yes, horrifically loud motorcycles, some using so-called open pipes (no muffler) fall under the new law, too, but there is the 80-decibel manufacturer’s limit that must be exceeded, so I’m not sure if mere officer judgment is going to be operative for super loud bikers.
Let’s hope the area police departments and Marion County Sheriff’s Office after July 1st will start stopping and citing these worst of the worst abusers. And if they don’t, we need to insist that they do so.
Richard Craig
Ocala