Palm Desert, CA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Section 9.24.050(A) is Palm Desert's vehicle noise provision. It bars the unnecessary use or operation of horns, signaling devices, uncontrolled muffler noises and car alarms on vehicles of all types, including motorcycles. For sound systems it adds two fifty-foot tests. Under item 1, operating a radio, phonograph, television, machine, loudspeaker or sound amplifier so that it is plainly audible at a distance of fifty feet or more from the building, structure or vehicle in which it is located, or from the source point, is a violation. Under item 2, a sound amplifier that is part of or connected to a radio, stereo receiver, compact disc player, cassette tape player or similar device violates the section when it is plainly audible at fifty feet from the source point, or when it causes a person to be aware of vibration at fifty feet or more from the source point. That second test is the bass rule: sound does not have to be intelligible, only felt.

The measuring point is the vehicle or the source point, not the complainant's property line, so a car parked on a street is tested by distance from the car. Subsection D authorizes peace officers and the city manager or designees to issue a citation and to confiscate and impound, as evidence, any or all of the components amplifying or transmitting the sound. Section 9.24.060 exempts mechanical devices connected with emergency machinery, vehicles or work. Within Chapter 9.24 there is no separate engine-brake provision and no decibel figure for passing vehicles, so mufflers are policed under the uncontrolled muffler noise wording.