According to the CBC, police in St. Johns, Newfoundland, want to bring in decibel meters to fight noisy motorcycles.
An article posted this morning on CBC says the cops in Canada’s eastern-most city are frustrated in their attempts to battle noisy motorcycles. The story quotes Sgt. Paul Murphy (of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary) saying “”We know it’s loud. You can tell it’s loud, by the sound, but we have to articulate that for court — and that’s where the problem lies.”
The solution? Murphy says the cops want to bring in decibel meters to help them lay charges. Right now, the law forbids tampering with your exhaust baffles, but that kind of modification can’t always be proven with a simple visual inspection. A decibel meter would allow police to check out a machine’s noise output without breaking out a wrench set, and also address the real problem.
This is the first time we’ve heard of a Newfoundland municipality wanting to crack down on loud pipes. If the past few years are any indication, we can expect other towns in the province to likely jump on the bandwagon in coming weeks, if cops in St. Johns push it any further, especially since Murphy is with the provincial police force.
Like most places, in St. John’s its only a handful of idiotic Throttle Cowboys who are making a nuisance of themselves … singling out motorcyclists while other modified, dB breaking vehicles & machinery (i.e. tuner cars, snowmobiles, snowblowers at 3:00am) get off scot-free is unfair.
Our legislators and law enforcers would better serve by introducing a true graduated licensing system for motorcycles and making certified motorcycle training for new Riders mandatory, rather than persecuting motorcyclists in general because of a few yahoos …