Clarksville, TN Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Section 10-305 targets vehicle audio equipment specifically: no radio, tape player, record player, compact disc player, or similar device operated in or on a motor vehicle on public streets, in a public park, in a public parking lot, or on any other public premise may be audible to a person of normal hearing more than 50 feet from the vehicle. The same 50-foot audibility limit applies even on private property, measured outside that property's real boundary, and the section is explicit that the words do not need to be understandable for the sound to count as audible; bass reverberation alone is enough to violate it.

A separate provision in the chapter's general nuisance list, section 10-304(c)(3), addresses the mechanical side of vehicle noise: discharging exhaust from any motor vehicle or motorboat engine into the open air is unlawful unless it passes through a muffler or other device that effectively prevents loud or explosive noise, and subsection (c)(7) separately bans running a vehicle so out of repair or improperly loaded that it creates loud grating, grinding, or rattling. Both provisions were adopted by Ordinance No. 10-2012-13 on December 12, 2012, and neither depends on a decibel meter reading; the 50-foot test for stereos is a distance-based bright line, while the muffler and vehicle-condition rules turn on whether the noise-reduction equipment is functioning as designed.