URGENT MASS RESIDENTS: House Bill 2011 - Ban on Aftermarket Exhausts - Team Focus New England - Regional Forums - Team Focus - Come On In And Enjoy The Company!
I am a Ph.D. Graduate Student in Chemistry at Northeastern
University. I am aware of noise as a source of pollution. I run very
sensitive experiments that require absolute removal of all noise. I do
however also enjoy the sound of my exhaust system on my economy Ford
Focus SVT. It is a performance minded vehicle, however it does this
because the exhaust system is more efficient than even the base model
Ford Focus. Many people clamor to upgrade their exhaust system for not
only the beautiful exhaust note, but also for the improvement in fuel
economy.
In this time in our country when we are trying to limit our
reliance
on outside sources of crude oil, we need to improve our usage of these
limited resources. This bill would send us backwards in this regard not
to mention putting the States lower wage labor (namely exhaust shops
and performance shops) in jeopardy.
House Bill 2011 also neglects to provide law enforcement officials
with a standard with which to enforce, which makes for the judgment of
whether a modified exhaust or stock exhaust is in violation. In my own
case I feel like an unknowing law enforcement official under the guise
of this law (if enacted) would judge my STOCK exhaust to be
non-compliant or in violation, even though it is very much a factory
piece. If I can say this about a stock piece, how does one provide an
adequate measure of the violation with which to issue fines or
citations.
Please consider this in the near future when this bill comes up for
discussion. I urge you to rethink your current standpoint on the issue.
This is directly aimed at noise pollution and indirectly at minor
infractions of emission ( which can be dealt with in the emissions
testing not by sound emission ).
Sinerely,
Brian N. Hult
=============================================
Ph.D. Graduate Student
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Laboratory for Nanoscale Portable Power (Fuel Cells and Batteries)
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
This is a problem throughout the country - legislation is in the works all over to ban all types of modificaitons to vehicles.
I can say that there have been instances I have heared of by some of our SVT owners where they were pulled over by police because they think it is an aftermarket exhaust. This has been fought and the situations, from what I understand, had been basically thrown out.
Don't you know they won't pull over these monster SUV's and Pick-ups that have magnaflow's and huge lifts and the Muscle Cars of the 60's-80's that have modifications to their exhausts that make them louder.
I can say that I HATE loud exhausts. I find them to be obnoxious especially in the wee hours of the morning & at night when I have to sleep to get up and go to work. There are those that are just done to make their exhausts louder vs. more efficient or that they are even trying to improve their performance is a laugh half the time. When you open up your exhaust and don't compensate w/ higher intake volumes you're losing HP, Efficiency and just pissing off a lot of ppl. w/ loud exhausts and backfires to to poor back pressure.
There needs to be more specifics on their limitations - not that I agree at all w/ legislation of this type. I am just fed up w/ the unsafe, hacked up rice that bombs around interrupting everything w/ their noise that rattles my windows. That part really is annoying.
The SVT exhaust to me is not even close to these types I'm talking about.
____________________ Get in, Sit down, Shut up and HANG ON!
I am mainly concerned about them potentially taking away rights with a law that isn't laid out very well, it has no specifics about decibel level or what have you. It needs a lot of work to be even considered, so I say it is best left on the shelf or in the circular filing bin.
Here in NH there are some backwards laws that you can get around by loopholes in the way they are written.
This whole exhaust thing they are trying in just about all states for the most part is completely subjective by the police officer who chooses to pull you over. In my opion this isn't the way to enforce a real law. This is just profiling based personal preference.
I'm active w/ similar legislation on the Dog owner's side of my life. Breed Specific Legislation is murdering hundreds & thousands dogs all over this country & Canada based on what they LOOK like, not what their true breed and behavior dictates. Try owning a dog that just HAPPENS to look like an APBT or a Staffie.
____________________ Get in, Sit down, Shut up and HANG ON!
