My understanding is that the vast majority of road noise is caused by vehicles outfitted with non-standard tires. Where I live, 90% of the road noise is caused by lifted trucks using massive off-road tires on local roads and highways. It isn’t clear if this against the law all over the country, but in various US states, the police will issue tickets. There are several employees of local businesses who commute nearby and wake up the neighborhood when they go to work and when they return with the sound of their huge off-road tires getting on and off the highway. I’ve driven next to them on the highway several times and the noise is deafening. I can’t see how this is allowed. Next time I drive past them, I will run the NIOSH SLM app and record the decibels.
I don't recall ever hearing such system in my country, so I expect this is a US-only thing (I'm from Europe). I don't think this kind of system would even be legal in my country, nor would it be socially accepted.
Semi-trucks work just fine with regular silent brakes in the rest of the world, so is there any legit reason to equip a truck with such system, apart from the driver thinking it is cool?
Holy moly, those american style haulers seem to be designed specifically to produce maximum noise? EU trucks and buses have similar kind of exhaust brake that hardly makes any noise
Yes. They’re IRL anti-social trolls looking to maximize the number of people they can piss off.
They look for loopholes in the “social contract” of what behavior they can get away with without facing serious consequence.
If loud car exhausts were aggressively policed they wouldn’t bother. As it stands, police departments view it as a “we have better things to do” offense and these trolls take advantage of it.
I live several miles from the freeway but can hear it 24/7/365 when outside. I don't know what percent of freeway noise is from vehicles as you say, would love to know amount of noise by vehicle type.
By law car companies have to certify pass-by regulations that include exhaust and tire noise, since the microphone doesn’t differentiate between the two.
My understanding is that the vast majority of road noise is caused by vehicles outfitted with non-standard tires. Where I live, 90% of the road noise is caused by lifted trucks using massive off-road tires on local roads and highways. It isn’t clear if this against the law all over the country, but in various US states, the police will issue tickets. There are several employees of local businesses who commute nearby and wake up the neighborhood when they go to work and when they return with the sound of their huge off-road tires getting on and off the highway. I’ve driven next to them on the highway several times and the noise is deafening. I can’t see how this is allowed. Next time I drive past them, I will run the NIOSH SLM app and record the decibels.