Lexington, KY Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Section 18-40 targets the loud compression braking sound heavy trucks make when downshifting instead of using their service brakes, commonly called a Jake brake. The ordinance doesn't ban the device outright; it bans using one 'which results in a noise disturbance,' a term the section defines with three alternative triggers: the sound endangers or injures the safety or health of humans or animals, it annoys or disturbs a reasonable person of normal sensitivities, or it endangers or injures personal or real property. Any one of those is enough to make the use unlawful.

The only geographic carve-out is limited-access highways, where engine braking remains legal regardless of volume, keeping the rule off interstates and other controlled-access roads while reaching every ordinary city street. Two categories of driver are exempt outright: LFUCG personnel driving emergency-service vehicles, and any driver responding to an emergency event, regardless of what street they're on. A companion rule in § 18-39 requires every motor vehicle to run a working muffler at all times and bars any muffler cutout, bypass or similar device that lets exhaust noise or smoke escape unchecked; between the two sections, LFUCG regulates both routine exhaust noise and the sharper compression-brake bark separately.