Even Stock Exhausts Aren't Safe from NYC Noise Camera Tickets

Even with a stock exhaust, you and your performance car of choice could have the privilege of paying the City of New York $800 for a noise violation. Thanks to a new noise violation pilot program aimed at curbing loud exhausts and excessive honking with smart cameras and microphones, the potential for punitive punishment is on the rise for enthusiasts across all five boroughs.

Certainly, there is a decibel limit to the pops and crackles that even us enthusiasts can endure, and the tolerance of the general public often falls far below that line. Particularly in the wake of the pandemic, the prevalence of gun-shot-like backfires has turned public perception sour on modified cars, leading local officials in both New York and California to take action on such quality-of-life issues.

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Specifically, New York City approved a pilot program of noise-monitoring cameras in December 2023, arming each borough with at least five of the newly developed cameras.

The program is young, but it has the potential to be a major pain even for drivers of unmodified cars.

Operated jointly by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation, the conjoined camera and microphone operate much like speed or red light cameras, snapping pictures of the offender’s license plate and issuing a fine to the registered owner. Unlike speed light cameras, however, the locations of the noise-monitoring cameras have not been initially disclosed to the general public.

Installed in-front of 210 E 36th Street in Manhattan, this SoundVue-built model is the very one that captured Jerry and his Porsche 911.

Fitted with sensitive microphones, the $35,000 cameras detect and capture everything from loud exhausts and backfires to honking and blasting music. Eighty-five decibels is the threshold for receiving a fine, which starts at $800 for a first offense and rises to $2,500 for repeat offenders. For reference, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention places the average environmental noise level of city traffic inside a car at 85 decibels, indicating that City officials are targeting those who go above and beyond a normative sound level.

“We’re going after those who are potentially using an illegal vehicle, a modified vehicle, some that are really acting loudly,” NYC Council Majority Leader Keith Powers said in a statement last year. “Even in the city that doesn’t sleep, New Yorkers deserve some peace and quiet.”

Officials like Powers assured everyday drivers that the program isn’t about penalizing unmodified vehicles or the occasional honk. In practice, however, that promise hasn’t exactly panned out for people like Jerry H (who wished to keep their last name anonymous), who received an $800 noise violation ticket in his bone stock 2010 Porsche 911 Carrera S.

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Traversing across the east end of Manhattan’s 36th Street and funneling into the blue-and-yellow tiled Queens-Midtown Tunnel, Jerry was commuting home to the outer reaches of Queens. Making the light-to-light slog that is Manhattan traffic, Jerry accelerated to the penultimate light before hitting the tunnel, focused on getting home. Weeks later, he received a notice in the mail that he had been caught violating the Stop Spreading the Noise Act.

With a 3.8-liter flat-six, a stock exhaust, and on a relatively slow section of road, Jerry was initially puzzled by the violation. Sure, he admits to hitting 35 mph in a 25 mph zone, but he wasn’t speeding excessively or wringing out the rear-mounted engine, either. With $800 on the line and a car that he thought would be exempt from such fines, Jerry built a defense and filed an appeal with the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.

997 Porsche 911 Cutaway

Armed with an independent decibel test, certified documents proving the 997 was stock, and questions about the calibration of the cameras, Jerry appealed the violation and lost not once but twice. Up against lawyers for the Department of Environmental Protection, he queried them about the once-a-year calibration of the camera, the sonic combination of rear-engine induction and exhaust noise, and even the gearing in his car.

On the other side of the virtual bar, lawyers for the City mounted a defense with video footage not previously provided to the owner of the 911. The footage, analyzed by Road & Track, shows a 997-generation 911 accelerating up to a light and a series of red dots marking sound waves exceeding 85 decibels. The dots lock onto the car as well as the street, scaffolding, and buildings beside it. According to the documents provided by the DEP, the 997’s signature flat-six rose to 90.4 decibels at its loudest.

In the judge’s eyes, that was evidence enough to uphold the violation against Jerry in both appeals, regardless of the stock exhaust fitted to the car. This sets a precedent much like a California case involving a stock Hyundai Elantra N, in that owners can be heavily penalized for simply buying and owning a factory vehicle. No matter the age or factory status of the vehicle, New York City’s pilot program can and will get you for being too loud.

“It just makes no sense to not have exemptions,” Jerry said in an interview with Road & Track. “And it’s pretty clear that automakers don’t want to get involved with this. They want nothing to do with this.”

Jerry is not alone in this frustration, either. Prior to the official approval of the pilot program in 2023, the DEP has been running a small noise camera test program since 2021, issuing as many as 218 noise violations for allegedly modified mufflers last year. Additionally, court documents cite another case of a stock car, a 2018 Jaguar F-Type, receiving and being held to the $800 violation fine for making 86 decibels of noise earlier this year. That’s one decibel over the limit.

California’s current noise enforcement standards are actually looser than NYC’s, with a standard of 95 decibels for cars and 80 for motorcycles built after 1985. Similarly, California’s enforcement standards don’t charge first-time offenders and even offer payment waivers for those not able to pay the fine or adequately repair their car. No such exemptions or caveats exist in the text of the NYC Council bill. Globally, Berlin, Paris, and the United Kingdom have also trialed such decibel monitoring devices, and other U.S. cities are considering it, too.

Berlin employs a similar noise reduction tactic in camera form, too.

“The NYC Noise Code has a strict standard of 76 dB(A). DEP enforces if the vehicle creates noise of more than 85 dB(A) at 50 feet,” a spokesperson for the DEP said in a statement to Road & Track. “Stock vehicles that emit excessive levels of noise result from actions taken by the driver. That is why the standard of law is no person shall cause or permit the exceedance of the decibel standard.”

While the precedent set by Jerry’s experience is a worrying one for car enthusiasts, motorcyclists, and anyone ready to test the limits of their sound system this summer, it’s worth noting that noise pollution is indeed a major problem in New York City, too. Research from 2014 estimated that around 90 percent of New York City residents are exposed to levels of noise exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s noise limit guidelines. The results of this aren’t catastrophic in the short term but can develop into cognitive issues over time.

Specifically, research shows that prolonged sleep disruption, hearing loss, hypertension, and heart disease are all linked to consistent noise pollution. Additionally, the impacts of noise are specifically detrimental to children, yielding decreased memory, struggling reading skills, and lower test scores when consistently exposed to high levels of noise. With noise monitored by New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as well as 311 noise complaint data, the top sonic offenders in NYC are unsurprisingly traffic, sirens, and construction.

As the year continues, the DEP and DOT will be tasked with presenting an annual report on the program, which will include the locations of the noise cameras, the number of violations detected, and any expenses incurred in connection with the program. With the pilot program legislated in place and no plans to issue exemptions to stock vehicles, car enthusiasts in NYC will have to follow their own set of noise abatement procedures going forward.

“You could drive at 100 mph and it’s nowhere close to the same fine,” Jerry said emphasizing that many of the modified cars and license-less dirt bike groups initially targeted by this bill will likely skirt accountability by removing or covering their plates. “You drive a stock car at 35 mph and you get an $800 fine that doubles every time.”

When queried about the future of the pilot program, NYC Council Majority Leader and champion of the Stop Spreading the Noise Act, Keith Powers, did not respond to a request for comment from Road & Track. Following the initial appeal and out of fear of racking up thousands in fines, Jerry has since traded his 997 Carrera S for an Acura Integra Type S.

If you’ve received a noise violation ticket with a stock exhaust in NYC, we’d love to hear your story. Please email me at [email protected].