If the Virginia General Assembly allows it, Fairfax County leaders are willing to be the guinea pigs in any effort to find more effective ways to tamp down on noisy vehicles.
The Board of Supervisors’ legislative committee took steps last Tuesday (Nov. 26) to request legislation allowing the county to host a pilot program that would use technology to catch drivers whose after-market mufflers pump out more noise than the 85 decibels allowed under state law.
The effort “has become kind of a passion project of mine,” Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw, who heads the committee, said.
“This is a real quality-of-life issue,” Walkinshaw said, adding that the current lack of enforcement is also an example of the government failing to do its job for the community.
The General Assembly adopted a law in 2020 that, for the first time, included a requirement that vehicle exhaust systems be in good working order. That and subsequent legislative efforts, however, have failed to address the noise issues, Fairfax County Department of Transportation Coordination and Funding Division Chief Noelle Dominguez told the board.
Walkinshaw noted that complaints about noisy vehicles grew in Fairfax during 2020 and 2021, but since have subsided. The drop wasn’t because there were fewer blaring mufflers, he believes.
“People just got frustrated and gave up [on reporting issues],” Walkinshaw said.
Under current law and given limited staff resources, enforcement is difficult to impossible, county leaders say. As an alternative, they’re proposing a pilot program for automated noise cameras that, when placed on roadways, can measure the decibel count of vehicles as they pass by.
The Montgomery County Council in Maryland approved a bill to establish a similar pilot program in October to try enforcing a Maryland law that prohibits vehicles from exceeding a sound limit of 80 decibels.
In the Montgomery County program, the cameras will be able to detect any noise at least five decibels above the limit and capture video of the offending vehicle. Vehicle owners will receive a warning in the mail for the first offense and $75 fines for each successive one.
Fairfax County officials would prefer Virginia’s state government step up to the plate on enforcement this side of the Potomac River, but acknowledge that may not happen.
“It’s sad we have to go this route,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said, suggesting that the preferable avenue for enforcement would be the state evaluating vehicle noise during annual safety inspections.
“If the state won’t do anything, they’ve got to let us step in,” McKay said.
The requested pilot program would be relatively small and for a limited duration, county officials said.
Supervisors cautioned that the program shouldn’t be too small, voicing concerns that if there are too few monitoring sites, and if they aren’t moved around over time, the experiment wouldn’t result in useful data.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to finalize their 2025 legislative package tomorrow (Dec. 3). Then, next Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 3:30 p.m., county leaders will meet with local representatives in the General Assembly to discuss the upcoming state legislative session.
The legislature is slated to convene Jan. 8 for a 45-day 2025 session.
Photo via Oscar Sutton/Unsplash
