Leominster, MA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Section 14-8(6) targets everyday vehicle noise. It bars operating a motor vehicle, or any sound reproduction device inside one, car stereos included, so that it is plainly audible in a public place fifty feet or more away in any direction. It separately bars sounding a horn or warning device from a car or motorcycle so it carries one hundred feet or more, except when the horn is necessary to avoid hitting another vehicle or a pedestrian.

Section 14-8(7) adds a numeric decibel cap for motorcycles registered for highway use under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 90, Section 2: no more than eighty-two decibels measured at fifty feet in a speed zone of forty-five miles per hour or less, rising to eighty-six decibels in zones posted above forty-five. It also bars removing or disabling a motorcycle's factory exhaust, muffler or noise-control equipment, and bans aftermarket performance or competition exhaust systems on off-road vehicles operated in residential areas. Both provisions sit inside the citywide noise ordinance the Director of Public Health and Leominster police enforce, and both carry the ordinance's escalating fine schedule: one hundred dollars for a first offense, two hundred for a second, and three hundred for a third or later offense, with each day of a continuing violation counted separately.