Mid-Life Riders Online

Item 17 - Minutes of Council (June 16, 2009) St. John's, NL

Signal Hill Road ? Complaint from Resident re: Motorcycle Traffic

The Committee considered correspondence from John Goodman regarding the issues of excessive noise, speeding, and racing in relation to motorcycle traffic on Signal Hill Road.

The Committee discussed the issue at length, with it being noted that the RNC has conducted research on the issue of excessive noise caused by motor vehicles and motorcycles. The police can purchase decibel meters to measure noise levels, however, there are no provisions in the Province?s Highway Traffic Act that will allow police to ticket and/or charge drivers.Councillor Puddister noted that the state of Massachusetts is one ofthe leaders with respect to enacting legislation pertaining to noise and motorcycles. He suggested that staff research Massachusetts?legislation to see if it could be applied here. If so, then perhaps the issue could be dealt with through the NLFM to lobby the Province to make changes to the Highway Traffic Act.

The Committee recommends that staff conduct further study and research on the state of Massachusetts? legislation in relation to decibel control formotorcycles and vehicles.

About time.

"Loud pipes - Lose Rights"

I have a 4 in 1 header on my 1981 XS1100 Special if it is determined that my exhaust is too loud will I have to stop riding till I can find a factory exhaust for my bike, I cannot see myself doing that. Maybe the City of St. John's should ask for input from motorcyclists also. Gerry Colbert rides a bike, he should be one of the main councilors who looks for input from motorcyclists. There are a large number of riders in St. John's and if alot of us are affected then I for one will remember during the next election.

You will lose, Robert. Just look at the stats from Mervyn's recent article. We represent about 9.6% of the population among licensed drivers. We ( motorcyclists) probably represent an even smaller cross section of the voting public. The average non-biker is sick of the noise and the politicians know it.

Your '4 into 1' on your XS is probably not one of the worst violators. I love the sound of a good "tuned exhaust" system. The worst examples are the open header or straight pipe, big inch Harley /cruiser bikes. Why people think that these things sound 'cool' blows my mind. They sound awful and ripping through residential neighborhoods at all hours of the night and day reving the guts out of these things gives all motocyclists a black eye.