Appleton, WI Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

39 (2023-24) by reference for unlawful muffler noise, and a violation can also be enforced as a violation of Section 19-1, the City's adopted state traffic laws, giving the Police Department two enforcement paths for a defective or removed muffler. Section 12-80(h) separately bars any operator from accelerating a motor vehicle in a way that creates unnecessary noise, naming loud or excessive engine revving, tire squealing caused by friction with the roadway surface, and throwing stones or gravel while accelerating as specific violations, so a driver does not need to exceed a decibel number to be cited; the manner of driving is the offense itself.

Section 12-80(i) makes it unlawful for any vehicle equipped with a compression braking device, commonly called a jake brake, to use that device to rapidly slow the engine's revolutions and the vehicle's speed, with a narrow exception for extreme emergencies; there is no permit or daytime allowance built into the subsection, so the restriction runs at every hour of the day. All three provisions sit inside Article IV, Noise, which Section 12-77 assigns to the Health Department or Police Department to administer, and Section 12-78 treats any violation of the noise article as a public nuisance subject to forfeiture plus injunction or abatement.

Unlike Table I's decibel ceilings, the muffler, revving and jake-brake clauses describe prohibited acts or devices rather than a sound-pressure number, so no meter reading is required to cite a driver.