Our city’s streets have become increasingly overrun by harmfully loud vehicles -- cars, trucks, and motorcycles whose engines, stereos, or exhaust systems have been deliberately modified to create maximum noise. The modifications often include removal of the vehicle’s muffler, which is prohibited by State law [1], and can amplify the vehicle’s loudness well in excess of the maximum decibel limits established by Richmond’s 2011 noise ordinance [2]. In addition, many of these vehicles flout traffic laws, running red lights, entering designated bus lanes, and driving recklessly for show. 

Enforcing these laws is vital for public health, peace, welfare, and safety.  Loud noise has immediate adverse effects on psychology and behavior; regular exposure to it causes sleep disturbance, which can in turn lead to physical and cognitive problems; and long-term noise exposure is associated with increased heart disease, hypertension, stress levels, and cognitive decline. These effects have been thoroughly established and documented [3], and are explicitly recognized as the rationale for Richmond’s 2011 noise ordinance [4].  

City officials have taken no visible action to curb the growing problem of loud and reckless vehicles. The Richmond Police Department, while acknowledging that it has received a flood of complaints about vehicle noise, maintains that pulling over loud vehicles is both unsafe, because of the risk of an ensuing high-speed chase, and illegal, under the new police reform law passed by General Assembly in 2020 [5]. The Mayor’s office is reportedly preparing to propose new legislation to the General Assembly to address the problem, but given that multiple laws which already exist for this purpose are not currently being enforced, it is unclear how additional laws will provide a solution.

The signers of this petition urge the City of Richmond to tackle this problem with more immediate and innovative initiatives. Signers are invited to voice their own experiences, concerns, and ideas around this issue in their comments. 

[1] Virginia Code 46.2-1047, 46.2 -10.49

[2] City of Richmond, Code of Ordinances, Chapter 11, Article II, Sec 11-28

[3] See, e.g., Chris Bruntlett, Melissa Bruntlett, Curbing Traffic (Washington: Island Press, 2019); and Basner M, Brink M, Bristow A, de Kluizenaar Y, Finegold L, Hong J, Janssen SA, Klaeboe R, Leroux T, Liebl A, Matsui T, Schwela D, Sliwinska-Kowalska M, Sörqvist P. "ICBEN review of research on the biological effects of noise 2011-2014." Noise Health. 2015 Mar-Apr;17(75):57-82.

[4] City of Richmond Code of Ordinances, Chapter 11, Article II, Sec. 11-21

[5] SB 5030