Hochul Raises Fine from $150 to $1,000 for Drivers who Terrorize Residents by Installing “Noise-Enhancing” Mufflers

     Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill on Friday in Bay Ridge that will give financial consequences to drivers of cars and motorcycles who choose to install “alternative exhaust systems” that emit loud noise pollution that greatly bothers residents.

     “You talk about noise in the city of New York,” said Gov. Hochul. “We are used to noise. We really are. There is construction going on. We hear sirens.

     “This is not something that we don’t deal with on a regular basis, but when there is voluntary noise: noise that does not have to be there and assaults your ears at the time when you should be getting the rest your body desperately needs after a long day, as a New Yorker, then we have to step up and do something.”

     Working in collaboration with local government officials, Gov. Hochul signed the bill that is called “The SLEEP Act,” which stands for “Stop Loud and Excessive Exhaust Pollution,” after more than 3,000 New Yorkers called 311 with noise complaints about the assaults to their ears. 

      Gov. Hochul chose to sign the bill in Brooklyn because local representatives said that it was an area plagued by effects of “this obnoxious, terrorizing behavior.”

       The SLEEP Act will prohibit repair shops from installing exhaust systems that increase, rather than muffle, noise.

     “To do that, you have to have bounties, and we will suspend the operating license of an inspection station upon a third or subsequent willful violation, so they will get a little notice, but don’t get too complacent because, on the third violation, there will be consequences,” Gov. Hochul said. “The maximum fine was raised $1,000 from $150: that ought to get people’s attention for cars and motorcycle that operate with alternate exhaust systems.”