Todays Sunday Times

[Louise]

Two things grabbed my attention in the Motoring section this week:

Firstly -
It is an offence under the road vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 to modify the exhaust system fitted to a vehicle to increase its noise or gas flow. Under The Police Reform Act 2002 the Police now have the powers to confiscate the cars and motorbikes of those who ignore a warning to keep their noise down.

Secondly -
There is a good article on speed humps, the basics of which are that the government regulations say that they cannot exceed 100mm high and cannot be less than 900mm "front to back" (ie width) and that no vertical face should exceed 6mm. It goes on to say that if the hump breaks these rules, except in exceptional circumstances the council will probably have to remove them. The only exception to this rule is the rubber one bolted to the road.

Go get your tape measure out...


Louise :sm

[SimonP]

Louise,
Silencers - there is one small but very significant error in the wording there.
"to increase its noise or gas flow."

According to some legal advisory site, the actual wording of reg 54 is:
"No person shall use, cause or permit to be used, a vehicle on a road if exhaust gases from the engine escapes into the atmosphere without first passing through the silencer, etc.
The silencer etc. shall at all times when the vehicle is used on a road be maintained in good and efficient working order and shall not have been altered in any way which makes the noise **of** escaping gases greater."

So increase the gas flow all you like .... but just don't make it any louder {-}

So a boy racer can easily fall foul of this one with his saxo.
But, having amateur built vehicles we are better off because the limits are more relaxed in the SVA test than in EU regs for mass-production vehicles.

Car stereos also come under the same regs (reg 97), which go on to say “No motor vehicle shall be used on a road in such manner as to cause any excessive noise which could have been avoided by the exercise of reasonable care on the part of the driver”.
So, it could be said that "it wouldn't have made that noise if you didn't turn up the volume so far", I suppose.

So will we start to see roadside cameras fitted with SPL meters as well as speed detection now?

I can just see someone's face when they get a summons:

On the ** of *** 2003, you were clocked doing over 101dB in a 30 zone!

Whatever!

Simon :-;