Lexington, KY Noise from Specific Sources: Low-Frequency Bass Limits (2026)

Section 14-72's vehicle-audio clause is Lexington's answer to the 'boom car' problem, and it's written as a bright-line distance test rather than a decibel limit. It bars using or operating 'any radio, stereo, tape player, record player, compact disc player or any similar device for the producing, reproducing or amplification of sound in or on any vehicle' on public streets, rights-of-way, or other public property, including parks and public parking lots run by the urban county government or the Lexington and Fayette County Parking Authority/LexPark, if the sound is audible to a person of normal hearing more than 10 feet from the vehicle.

The ordinance goes out of its way to close an obvious loophole: 'words and phrases need not be discernible for said sound to be "audible," and said sound shall include bass reverberation,' so a car stereo thumping bass that can't be identified as any particular song still counts. Because the test is distance-based rather than metered, an officer can enforce it by ear from 10 feet away without special equipment. The clause was added by Ord. No. 162-2012, the same 2012 ordinance that added the barking-animal clause to § 14-72, and it applies to any vehicle on covered public property regardless of time of day.