Salem, OR Environmental Rules: Vehicle Idling Restrictions (2026)

SRC 93.020(f), part of the city's "Specific noise disturbances" section, makes it unlawful to operate any idling engine for more than ten consecutive minutes in a manner that is plainly audible within any dwelling unit between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day. Two conditions have to be met at once: the idling has to run past the ten-minute mark, and it has to be audible inside a home during the restricted overnight window. A vehicle idling briefly at a light, or idling loudly at 2:00 p.m., is not reached by this particular subsection, though it can still be a noise disturbance under the general "plainly audible" or decibel-based standards elsewhere in SRC 93.020.

The rule sits alongside the chapter's broader declaration of purpose in SRC 93.001, which states the Council's intent to control noise that interferes with sleep and repose, and it applies citywide with no zone-based exception; the same ten-minute, nighttime standard governs a delivery truck idling outside a downtown business and a car warming up in a residential driveway. SRC 93.030 lists the chapter's only exemptions, covering things like emergency vehicles and disaster response, and none of them applies to routine overnight idling for warmth or convenience.