Enforcing Vechicle Exhaust Noise
It’s wintertime, nearly Christmas, and this is when I like to write some of my reflections on the past year. There would be too much for my typing finger to expand on if I put down everything however so I will just fill any readers with my thoughts on my efforts to get APD to do vehicle exhaust noise enforcement.
If you haven’t heard me harp on this before, I’ve grown up in Anchorage and have a special affection for the town but one thing that has inexplicably been swept under the rug for the past decade is how all the chuds have chosen to modify their vehicles to make ridiculous amounts of noise (sorry, I tend to write long sentences).
Since the state admin decided to end mandatory emissions testing in 2011, new chuds every year have been making this bold move to “make car loud and angry”. I have simply had enough of this but I also know everyone that hasn’t acclimated to this regressive future are as well. Everyone knows it's very difficult to move the police department to do something and I figured that it would be a good challenge or maybe even a test to see if it’s even possible to get them to do their job on this issue. Because this might be one of those cases where people around me are even more upset about a niche and easily resolvable issue than myself. Because I wouldn’t have been able to shepard this new ordinance passed earlier this month without all the help from around town.
I would say that this effort started when I started asking folks, random strangers and neighbors, what they think about the problem itself. And I’d say while half the people were not radicalized by the lack of enforcement, the other half definitely were. When by random chance I asked my neighbor across the street on a clear summer day during the usual 9-10pm chud parade on L street, I found my John Brown helper. Together we collected 75 signatures for an ad hoc petition of residents along L street from 11th to 15th ave. asking APD to ramp up enforcement of vehicle noise enforcement. That’s nearly everyone that lives nearby and he collected maybe 65 of the 75 signatures. My neighbor’s commitment to the idea and the positive response is what gave me the confidence to keep pushing this. Of the signatures we collected in summer 2021, we had notable business leaders, an elderly ex-mayor, and even a police union rep.
I sent this petition to APD with pleading hands asking for assistance but they could not commit to help. They were communicative for the most part though and sent their head of traffic enforcement to chat with me. The limitations APD had included that they didn’t allocate the same level of officers for traffic enforcement but also, they didn’t know how to enforce the law unless it was a glaring issue like the muffler was completely missing or hanging down with missing bolts.
Without progress from the conversation with APD and on the suggestion from an ex-candidate for mayor who took the time to keep talking with me after they had already dropped out, I took my petition and written communication with APD and went to the ombudsman’s office to do more pleading. This was maybe the greatest hinge point of my long story. Because Mr. Hess was also confused why this was not being enforced and followed up with all the relevant parties to understand the situation and draw up recommendations to resolve this issue. In his report, he outlined that APD needs to purchase meters to measure noise and that APD needs to make clear policy recommendations that they believe would be necessary to enforce the spirit of the law.
In the end, APD’s recommendation was to increase the vehicle exhaust noise citation amount and became the basis for the ordinance. It was their idea to resolve the issue and they own the idea. While I would have liked for there to be stiffer penalties to make a greater incentive, the ball is now in their court. It isn’t often that employees get asked what they need to do their job better but here is a case where the person responsible for the work is making the rule on how to do their job that has been neglected earlier. I fully intend on holding them to their own recommendation.
To make a long story short, it took much more effort to get to this point through six separate community council resolutions and gathering allies to contact decision makers. It is not just me anymore and we are organized. If the problem is not curtailed by next summer, there will be a unified effort to ask why this issue is not being resolved that doesn’t come from asking APD what they need but why is their organization ineffectual in responding to issues addressed by the community and the ombudsman. I say this as one of the least bothered people I know with this shared interest.
How will APD respond to the “Bike Blessing”, an organized event in early summer with hired police security which has turned a deaf ear to the hundreds of unmuffled Harleys all aggregated on the park strip? I have heard from APD that they have ramped up enforcement since the beginning of this year, before the new ordinance was signed but as of my most recent data request to the end of June this year, there hasn’t been a significant increase in citations.
Of course, the Harleys are just a very obnoxious part of the whole problem. Trucks and cars are driving year round with these systems but fortunately the large snow dump has muffled them for us. When things start to melt, we will start to hear again the colicky, illegal expression of these dumb motor chuds. APD would prefer the state step in and solve this with new emission testing but that isn’t an option and it isn’t their job. Their job is to enforce the law that they wrote for themselves for us.