Woodland, CA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Woodland's noise ordinance, Woodland Municipal Code § 9.28.090, names specific vehicle sounds among the acts the City Council has declared 'loud, disturbing and unnecessary.' Subsection (B)(1), Motor Noises, bars any noise from the motor of an automobile, truck, tractor or motorcycle that is not reasonably required for its operation, expressly including backfiring and motor racing. Subsection (B)(9), Exhausts, requires that the exhaust discharge of any steam engine, stationary internal combustion engine, motor boat or motor vehicle pass through a muffler or other device that effectively prevents loud or explosive noise, reaching straight-piped or removed-muffler exhausts and unlawfully loud aftermarket systems alike.

Horn misuse is covered separately in the same section at subsection (B)(2), which bars sounding a horn or signaling device except as a danger warning and bars unreasonably loud, harsh or prolonged horn use. None of these subsections carries its own fine schedule, so enforcement runs through the code's general penalty at Woodland Municipal Code § 1.08.070: a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in the Yolo County Jail, a fine of up to $1,000.00, or both, unless the City Attorney elects to charge the offense as an infraction, in which case fines run $100 for a first violation, $200 for a second within a year and $500 for each further violation. The Woodland Police Department is the enforcing agency, and every day the excessive noise continues counts as a separate offense under § 1.08.070(D).