Ramapo, NY Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Town Code § 188-4F provides that "no person shall cause or permit to be caused the sounding of any horn or other auditory signaling device on or in any motor vehicle except to serve as a danger warning," meaning horn use for anything other than an actual safety alert, greeting a friend, expressing frustration in traffic, celebrating, is a violation regardless of the hour or decibel level. Section 188-4H separately requires that exhaust from "any steam engine, stationary internal-combustion engine, air-compressor equipment, motor vehicle or other power device" be discharged through "an adequate muffler in constant operation and properly maintained," and bars modifying or using a muffler or exhaust system with "a cutoff, bypass or similar device" that lets the engine create unreasonable noise, directly reaching aftermarket exhaust modifications and cutout valves.

A related provision, § 188-4G, separately bars repairing, rebuilding, modifying or testing a motor vehicle in a way that causes an unreasonable noise across a residential boundary or within a noise-sensitive zone, covering revving and test-driving modified vehicles. None of these three vehicle-noise clauses is limited to nighttime hours; they apply around the clock because the underlying conduct, an improper horn or a defeated muffler, is treated as unreasonable regardless of when it occurs.