Jessamine County, KY Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Vehicle noise in the Jessamine County Fiscal Court's Noise Control Ordinance (Chapter 92) is handled in two operative divisions of § 92.36. Division (A) covers radios, television sets, phonographs, drums, musical instruments and similar devices that produce or reproduce sound. Under (A)(2), it is a violation to operate one so that it exceeds the levels set for public space in §§ 92.37 through 92.41, measured at a distance of at least 100 feet (30 meters) from the device operating on a public right-of-way or public space. A car stereo parked or driven on a county road falls into that measurement rule. Division (A)(1) separately bars sound between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. that creates a noise disturbance across a residential or commercial real property line. As printed, §§ 92.37 through 92.41 are the violation-assessment, abatement, notice, remedies and citizen-suit sections and contain no decibel table, so the officer's judgment under § 92.04 and the § 92.37 factors fills the gap.

The definitions in § 92.04 matter for car audio. SOUND-AMPLIFYING EQUIPMENT excludes standard automobile radios when used and heard only by the occupants of the vehicle, so a stereo that only the driver hears is outside the definition. A SOUND TRUCK is any vehicle, in motion or stationary, with sound-amplifying equipment mounted on it.

Division (F) covers horns and signaling devices on any truck, automobile, motorcycle, emergency vehicle or other vehicle on any street or public place within the county or any city therein. Sounding one except as a danger warning signal as provided in the Kentucky Revised Statutes, or for an unnecessary and unreasonable period of time, is a violation. Section 92.36 as printed has no sentence about mufflers or engine brakes, although § 92.04 defines a MUFFLER or SOUND DISSIPATIVE DEVICE as a series of chambers or baffle plates, or other mechanical design, for receiving exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine and effective in reducing noise. Night testing of motorcycles and off-road vehicles is in § 92.36(E) and (J).

The Kentucky State Police, Sheriff's Department, Nicholasville Police Department, Wilmore Police Department or any duly elected constitutional peace officer enforce the chapter under § 92.15(A).