New bill seeks to address vehicle noise

by KYRA CYPHERT

Staff Writer

A bill passed by both the Virginia House and Senate earlier this year authorizes Fredericksburg City, among other localities in the Commonwealth, to implement noise monitoring systems that record and enforce exhaust violations from noisy vehicles. It currently awaits Governor Glenn Youngkin’s signature to formally become a law. 

Vehicle noise is seen as a nuisance by some students who say it impacts their ability to sleep in campus dorms. 

“Instead of my alarm waking me up, loud cars would wake me up and it frustrates me because I could have slept in more before having to wake up,” said Claudia Zimmerman, a junior anthropology major.

Morgan Galusha, a junior anthropology major, echoes Zimmerman’s frustrations and says the noise is unavoidable while walking on College Avenue, the main street parallel to campus.

“I think it’s really annoying when I’m walking on College Avenue and it’s one of those cars who revs their car on purpose to make it extremely loud, and I just don’t expect it so it’s like a jump scare,” she said. “Nothing against car mods altogether, I mostly just critique the mods that make your car extremely loud.”

However, some students are against noise enforcement because they say car manufacturers design vehicles with features that make them loud on purpose. This means that the noise does not necessarily come from consumer modifications and is not the fault of the driver.

“I mean, if a vehicle in of itself, like a truck, is loud just because of the way that the truck was made and not because of the modifications, that’s one thing, if you remove your muffler, your car sounds more mean like a honda civic,” said senior marketing major Killian Petty.

Junior international relations major Aaron Juma plays for the UMW men’s rugby team and says a number of his teammates have loud cars that would be impacted by this law. 

“I have encountered loud vehicles not as often as you would expect, and I have a few teammates who have loud cars,” he said. “It is so exciting seeing loud vehicles with their V8 engines and their turbos.” 

Juma says he is concerned that some cars on campus might now be considered illicit. However, violators would receive a traffic summons and fines would be capped at $100, and the citation would neither impact a driver’s operating record nor be reported to their insurance provider. 

It is currently unclear if Youngkin will sign the bill into law, and regardless, the Fredericksburg City Council would need to pass an enabling ordinance before enforcement begins.