I don’t know much about motorcycles except that too many are deafeningly loud. We live a block away from a busy road and some are so loud that they wake us up at night – with our windows closed. Aren’t there laws against this? Are they being sold this way? – Caroline, Toronto

Generally, when you buy a new motorcycle, they don’t come standard with the noise.

“From the factory, they are not loud. Ninety-nine per cent of [loud bikes] are modified after they’re sold,” said Sean Shapiro, a road safety consultant and former Toronto traffic cop. “When the factory can [muffler] is removed and replaced with a straight muffler that doesn’t actually muffle, it’s just for looks.”

Mufflers are part of the exhaust system that make a car quieter. In Ontario, section 75 of the Highway Traffic Act states that every motor vehicle must have a muffler “in good working order and in constant operation to prevent excessive or unusual noise and excessive smoke.”

That same section states that drivers can’t “at any time cause the motor vehicle to make any unnecessary noise.”

So, if your vehicle is obnoxiously loud, you can face a fine of $85. If you’re driving with an improper muffler, the fines start at $300.

Ontario’s law doesn’t list a specific decibel level – it’s up to an officer to judge whether it’s too loud, Shapiro said.

And even a vehicle that’s relatively quiet while normally idling can be considered unreasonably loud if you rev the engine unnecessarily or you floor it at a light, for instance.

It’s a tough law to enforce because officers have to catch the vehicle in the act, he said.

“You can’t put an officer at the corner of Yonge and Steeles [in Toronto] and have them stay there until you find someone making noise,” he said. “And it’s a moving problem. It’s everywhere.”

How loud is too loud?

The rules vary by province, but all have bans on unreasonable vehicle noise. While Alberta and some other provinces don’t specify decibel levels, others, including Quebec, do.

But some municipalities, including Toronto and Edmonton, have bylaws that list specific decibel levels for vehicles.

In Toronto, a vehicle can’t be louder than 92 decibels – about as loud as a blender – when idling or 96 decibels – about as loud as a gas-powered lawn mower – once you’re touching the gas, Shapiro said. It’s a $500 fine.

“With 92 decibels at idle, even a bike with no pipes is probably not violating the law,” Shapiro said. “But 96 decibels is actually quite loud.”

This summer, Toronto had five blitzes to check for vehicles violating the noise bylaw and issued 14 tickets, all to motorcycles, a city spokeswoman said in an e-mail. The number of tickets issued in 2024 and 2023 wasn’t immediately available.

In practice, the bylaw is tricky to enforce, Shapiro said.

“Police do not have the equipment to measure the sound. Bylaw officers do,” he said. “[But] bylaw officers don’t have the authority to stop motor vehicles. So the only time they do this enforcement is when they do a combination project where they call in the police to babysit the bylaw officer.”

Sound decisions?

In Ontario, it’s not illegal to sell exhaust pipes with mufflers that don’t properly muffle sound.

“You go to a [motorcycle] dealer and they’ve got 500 different types of [aftermarket] pipes … and every one has got a muffler,” Shapiro said, adding that some can easily be modified with a screw driver to pull out the baffles that muffle the sound. “But those mufflers either have less muffling or no muffling.”

So why would anyone want their motorbike or car to be obnoxiously loud?

“It’s just to try to get attention … I assume, but it’s stupid,” Shapiro said. “And the people who live in those communities can’t sleep because of it, or babies are being woken up – so it’s really doing harm.”

Some riders argue that the noise is a safety feature – it lets other drivers and pedestrians hear motorcycles coming from a distance and know when they’re close. Shapiro doesn’t buy that.

“It’s just annoying for everybody behind them and anyone on the street as the roar echoes everywhere,” he said, adding that the rider is sitting ahead of the exhaust and doesn’t hear the full brunt of the noise. “And if they’re smart, they’re [still] wearing earplugs.”

Have a driving question? Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com and put ‘Driving Concerns’ in your subject line. Emails without the correct subject line may not be answered. Canada’s a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province.