New Bedford, MA Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Section 17-15, titled simply "Noise," sets two separate nighttime windows. , with an exception only for emergencies. m. The section spells out that "noises" is not limited to a narrow list: it explicitly includes the loading or unloading of motor vehicles, sounds from all types of mechanical devices including motor vehicles, and sounds made by animals and birds. This section descends from Code 1963 § 14-103 and an ordinance of December 10, 1981; an editor's note in the code explains that the 1981 amendment broadened the old horn-only provision into a general nighttime noise rule and the section was renumbered 17-15 as a result, with a related horn/vehicle-noise cross-reference now sitting in the Traffic chapter (Chapter 23).

commercial-noise rule; instead it uses the standard of noise that "menaces the health, interrupt[s] or disturb[s] sleep of residents," leaving the determination to the responding officer's judgment on a complaint-by-complaint basis. Because 17-15 does not write in its own fine, violations default to the Code's general penalty at Section 1-9, and can be processed through the noncriminal disposition procedure at Section 17-18.