What’s the problem?

The average family car emits little exhaust noise and is quieter than ever – but the average sports car is louder than ever. The resulting noise now blights countless homes across the world and severely affects a vulnerable few.

In the UK and elsewhere, unnecessary noise from vehicles is the result of three underlying issues:

Noise is underrated as a source of harm.
Noise legislation has not kept up with the growing number of noisy vehicles, nor a global subculture in love with vehicle noise
The police allow exhaust noise to go largely unchallenged, to a degree that would surprise and disappoint MPs and voters. The same goes for the UK’s MOT system.

There is evidence linking noise to a startling range of medical conditions, from dementia and ischaemic disease to impaired child-learning. Noise is a daily stressor to those with noise-sensitive conditions, such as autism, PTSD and schizophrenia. Neurologically we are all different: to some of us, noise is torture. Families of noise-sensitive autistic children report that loud sounds can cause a child to bolt, wander, try to hide – and even self-harm. On the issue of noise, no-one speaks for these families.

Noise-vulnerable groups may have benefitted from progress in other aspects of public policy, but their sensitivity to noise is rarely even discussed. Some suffers cannot speak for themselves and live behind closed doors. Only politicians can help, but few show any interest in reforming vehicle noise law.

In addition to vulnerable groups, vehicle exhaust noise is a constant torment to the “unlucky many” who live within earshot of a road – which is most of us. The UK Government’s National Noise Attitude Survey reports that around 60% of UK households suffer with exhaust noise daily (not just the usual traffic roar, but specifically exhaust noise from revving and acceleration).

Vehicle noise is most frequently experienced in vehicle “acceleration zones”. The list of these acceleration zones is long: junctions, roundabouts, tight bends, long straights, overtaking zones, slip roads and tunnels. At these locations, many drivers are prone to revving hard – often for fun, with no thought for those who live nearby. The resulting sound can be hugely demoralising. Our homes – perhaps the most precious object of all – are being ruined. While some degree of noise from mass private transport is inevitable, recreational exhaust noise is not inevitable. Most people find it unwelcome.

Those who complain about noise are commonly portrayed as weak, intolerant or weird, usually by those who want to make the noise. Similar insults were thrown at air pollution campaigners not so long ago, but those campaigners changed the agenda on air pollution and #Exhausted exists to do the same for vehicle noise.

#Exhausted believes vehicle noise is an issue that moves voters, especially when voters have a political choice in the matter. Those voters should know that much of what they hear is illegal but goes largely unchallenged by the authorities.

Legal vs. illegal exhaust noise

Exaggerated exhaust noise has multiple causes and solutions. The issue can get a little technical, so, as a start, it’s useful to distinguish between the noise made by legal vs. illegal vehicles.

In essence:

Not all noisy vehicles are illegal.

2. Those which are illegal are very unlikely to be prosecuted. The owners know that and boast of their impunity on social media.

These two factors explain why a tiny % of vehicles are much louder than others. Let’s now look at each in turn.

Legally noisy vehicles

For legal vehicles, manufacturers go out of their way to make their exhausts sound extra-loud under full acceleration, mostly for marketing purposes.

Sports engines often come with factory-fitted mechanical devices that have no purpose other than unnecessary noise. These devices include valves in the exhaust that open when revved, or software that deliberately creates loud “popping and banging” sounds, or a “drift mode” that causes the vehicle to deliberately lose stability – all purely for fun.

These gimmicks are not illegal, partly because no-one thought to ban them before the fact, and partly because the big car companies are effective lobbyists for legal exemptions for their super-loud and supposedly “low sales volume” vehicles. There might be few of these vehicles made in any one year, but on the streets their number only grows with time. These “exempt” vehicles can now be heard day and night, in every city and country lane.

There is a system for noise-testing new cars, but, as Dieselgate proved, manufacturers can game any system. For example, the former EU test for drive-by noise awarded roughly the same decibel rating to a Lamborghini as a Mini (74.9 decibels for the Lamborghini vs. 74 decibels for the Mini): when in the real world a Lamborghini is plainly noisier than a Mini.

Also noisy: older vehicles that were legal when manufactured but would probably be illegal if manufactured now, such as vintage Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Understandably, the police are hesitant to enforce against vehicles that meet legal standards. Instead, they have the option of going after owners on the grounds of anti-social behaviour, against which the police have additional and useful discretionary powers – but sadly these powers are not used enough. That may be because the police have too much to do, or are unaware of the daily impact of noise.

Some police forces have become skilled at staging theatrical interventions against noise (such as Operation Crackdown), in response to sporadic pressure by local groups and MPs, but generally the police are not too concerned with enforcing vehicle noise, whether from a legal or illegal vehicle. The police are more concerned with immediate and serious crimes against the person. That is perfectly reasonable, but is of no help to the many homes and families affected by excess vehicle noise.

Illegally noisy vehicles

Some of the very loudest cars and bikes on the road are plainly illegal. The owners are rarely caught and punished. Fines are risibly small.

If you want to make an illegal noise, there is no shortage of kit for sale online – in fact noise is a sophisticated commercial realm all of its own, just like illegal drugs.

Illegally-modified vehicles have been tweaked by the owners using many of the same methods as legal cars, only with no concern for the law. Illegal modifications are sometimes software-based, meaning they can be hidden beyond any realistic inspection by a roadside police officer or an MOT tester.

There is a huge industry selling modified exhausts, operating semi-legally and in plain view. Some vendors get around the law by tagging their exhausts as “competition only”, or by making sure that sound-deadening design elements can be easily removed by the owner. The firms making or fitting this kit calmly acknowledge their illegality, in YouTube marketing videos.

Noise laws are failing us

To protect the general population from excess vehicle noise, separate frameworks exist for police enforcement, manufacturing and vehicle testing standards (the MoT, in the UK). Sadly, these frameworks lag behind the ingenuity of the lawbreakers and the firms that supply them.

Legal frameworks against noise are enforced subjectively and only as far as resources permit. There are no serious penalties: maybe a £50 fine or a request to drive off and fix it. Seizure of noisy vehicles is potentially possible on other grounds (e.g. bald tyres), but rare.

For noise, the MOT system is a joke. No MOT garage uses decibel meters. There’d be no point, as there is no general or model-specific decibel limit for garages to check against. Instead, MOT garages are merely instructed that the car should not be louder than factory fitted – but as to what that might be, the tester has no way of checking.

Too often, an illegally noisy car evades prosecution because the police and MOT testers are hindered by unhelpful technical standards in exhaust manufacturing. After-market exhaust firms know this and exploit it.

MOT fraud is also an issue – in 2019 the UK authorities struck off 45 garages and 111 testers for fraud.

So, unnecessary exhaust noise is a problem in several dimensions: legal vehicles, illegal vehicles and ineffective enforcement. The result? A tiny group of vehicle enthusiasts now dominate the urban and rural soundscape. The soundscape is a commonwealth: it belongs to us all. There are many claims on it, but none so gratuitous and incessant as unnecessary vehicle exhaust noise.

Who cares about vehicle exhaust noise?

Mostly just the victims.

#Exhausted.org.uk seeks to reassure both victims and politicians that there are hidden votes in the issue.

#Exhausted accepts that private transport is politically sensitive. But excessively loud vehicles have somehow become normal: they can be heard in every city around the globe, day and night. Our leaders didn’t see that coming.

Governments also fail to appreciate the technical and practical difficulties in combating exhaust noise. The existing legislation may seem adequate on paper but is plainly useless in the real world. For proof, open your window and wait a few minutes: it won’t be long before you hear an exhaust that could be illegal, and that most people would hope and assume is illegal, but which the police either ignore or cannot enforce against.

Who benefits from noise?

Noise is money.

Car manufacturers and after-market firms make big margins from “sports exhausts” that are louder than standard. Consumers pay to drive loud: some after-market exhausts cost £5k or more.

Noise is money for the mainstream media too. Car magazines make money by advertising noisy cars, flattering their readers’ anti-social behaviour with harmless-sounding descriptions such as “road presence” and “giving it the beans”. These euphemisms exist to hide the impact of noise on others.

Noise is money for social media influencers too. There is a global video subculture for fans of exhaust noise, producing significant advertising revenue for YouTube and YouTube influencers. Some of these influencers normalise selfish and dangerous driving, especially among younger drivers. Some noise-loving YouTubers seem to be routinely helping reckless drivers evade prosecution by pixellating registration plates in crash footage, or openly mocking the police for simply doing their job.

Sometimes the owners suffer too

Speed and noise are two sides of the same coin. The consequences of “noise-seeking driving” are obvious and sometimes tragic.

Exhaust systems often give their “best” noises only at full power. If the owner doesn’t mash the throttle, they won’t hear the full range of noise they’ve paid for. As cars grow ever more powerful, the owners increasingly find that the full sound of their vehicle can only be experienced at illegal speeds. A Lamborghini Aventador SVJ can break the UK’s 70MPH motorway speed limit in 2nd gear – with another 5 more gears left for the owner to listen to. In truth, the noise is lovely when it’s your noise – but it belongs on a track. The police like to concentrate on the “fatal five” causes of road death, but that overlooks the role played by noise in promoting excess speed.

In the UK, road accidents are the leading external cause of death for men aged under 44. Estimates vary as to the cost of a single road fatality, but all are in the £millions per incident. Globally, over a million people die on the roads each year. How many of these deaths are due to anti-social driving is debatable, but in that debate the insurance companies have the best data: they know that drivers who modify their exhausts are at a greater risk to themselves and others. That’s why insurers insist an owner declares exhaust modification. #Exhausted believes modified exhausts should also be declared to the DVLA: the noisiest cars might then be slowly taxed off the road, as a prelude to electrification.

See here for more of #Exhausted’s policy recommendations.