Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Chapter 258 handles vehicle stereo noise with two audibility clauses in § 258-5C, so no decibel meter is needed. Under § 258-5C(6), personal or commercial vehicular music amplification or reproduction equipment cannot be operated in such a manner that it is plainly audible at a residential property line between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. Under § 258-5C(7), personal vehicular music amplification equipment cannot be operated in such a manner as to be plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet in any direction from the operator between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.

The Township defines PLAINLY AUDIBLE in § 258-1 as any sound that can be detected by a person using unaided hearing. The definition adds that for a portable or personal vehicular sound device, detecting the rhythmic bass component of the music is sufficient, and the noise control officer need not determine the title, specific words or artist. A driver cannot defend on the ground that the officer could not name the song.

A MOTOR VEHICLE is any vehicle propelled other than by human or animal power on land. The two clauses split by time: the daytime rule is a distance test measured from the operator, and the night rule is a boundary test measured at a residential property line, which covers a parked vehicle in a driveway or lot next to homes as well as a moving one.

The chapter's vehicle provisions are limited to music. The muffler requirement in § 258-5C attaches to power tools, yard equipment, construction machinery and snow equipment, not to road vehicles, and the chapter has no engine-brake clause. Exterior burglar alarms on motor vehicles have their own duration limits in § 258-5C(5). Traffic and equipment rules for road vehicles sit in other chapters of the Code.

Noise control officers, certified under § 258-3, investigate and issue the enforcement documents.