Santa Barbara, CA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

The City of Santa Barbara addresses some vehicle noise in its own code (SBMC Chapter 9.16) but leaves most exhaust and muffler noise to California state law. Under SBMC Section 9.16.070 (Regulation of Noise Affecting Parcels Zoned or Used for Residential Purposes), a motor-vehicle horn or signaling device may not produce a sound level in excess of 60 dB(A) at a distance of 200 feet. The City's definitions (Section 9.16.090) expressly exclude standard automobile radios used and heard only by the vehicle's occupants from the 'sound amplifying equipment' rules, and also exclude emergency-vehicle warning devices and traffic-safety horns — so an ordinary car stereo heard inside the car is not a City amplified-sound violation, though a stereo blasting across a property line can still be a 'noise disturbance' under Section 9.16.020. For the loud-exhaust problems most residents complain about, the controlling law is statewide California Vehicle Code, which applies throughout the city: Section 27150 requires every motor vehicle to have an adequate muffler in good working order and prohibits cutouts and bypasses, and Section 27151 bars exhaust-system modifications that amplify or increase noise beyond legal limits. Those state muffler/exhaust standards are enforced by police regardless of any city ordinance. The City's general 50-foot 'plainly audible' standard (Section 9.16.020) can also reach vehicle-based noise such as a loud stereo or revving engine creating a disturbance.