Plainfield, NJ Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Subsection (c) of § 10:8-3 is the City of Plainfield's vehicle noise rule. It reaches three kinds of people: anyone who operates an engine, anyone who causes it to be operated, and anyone who allows it to be operated. A vehicle owner who lets a driver take out a loud car is therefore inside the text, as is the driver.

The standard is written as a duty on the exhaust system. The exhaust must be so muffled, controlled or insulated that the engine makes no noise that will be offensive to any of the inhabitants. The code prints no decibel limit and no measuring distance for this subsection, so the question in a case is whether the exhaust noise is offensive to the inhabitants. A stock exhaust that stays quiet meets the standard; a removed or cut-through muffler that produces offensive noise does not.

The rest of § 10:8-3, titled Regulating and prohibiting unnecessary and disturbing noises, covers sound from the same vehicle by other routes. Subsection (d) bars a vehicle radio played with louder volume than is necessary for convenient hearing, with sound plainly audible at 100 feet treated as prima facie evidence of a violation. Subsection (a) bars willfully making any loud, boisterous or unseemly noise to the annoyance of any other person. Section 10:8-1(a)(3) adds that willfully making any unreasonably loud noise, with a purpose to cause public alarm or nuisance, is disorderly conduct.

The section carries the history note R.O. 1957, 10:3-1 to 10:3-12, as amended August 3, 1970, and MC 1988-14, September 6, 1988. Article 8 prints no penalty of its own for this subsection, so the general penalty in § 1:1-14 applies.