U.S. cycle group: Noise law biased

But ordinance won't go into effect until July 1

Alan Gathright and Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The nation’s largest motorcyclist group complained today that Denver’s new noise law is biased against bikers, and said it hopes to persuade city officials to modify the ordinance.

"We do understand the motivation behind legislation like this," said Bill Wood, spokesman for the 280,000-member American Motorcyclist Association. But by working with the city, "we can come up with something better," he said.

The law approved by City Council on Monday allows police to issue tickets for motorcycles made after 1982 if they lack factory-issued Environmental Protection Agency sound-test stamps.

But noisy cars and trucks are subject only to a sound-meter test, which motorcyclists say is more fair because it’s more objective, Wood said.

"They have created a double standard there," he said. "The (EPA-approved) equipment standard only applies to motorcycles, and everybody else gets a (sound-metered) performance standard, which is just exactly what we’ve asked for."

But Denver police say metering is labor-intensive and costly.

Meters cost at least $1,000 each, said Capt. Eric Rubin, head of the Traffic Operations Bureau. "We could not afford to outfit every officer with one or to keep them maintained or to provide that kind of training," he said.

Motorcyclists also complain that the new law punishes all bikers for the few who rev up their hogs outside bars at closing time and rumble home through neighborhoods at full throttle.

In 2002, the AMA and other motorcycle groups convinced Albuquerque to drop a law similar to Denver’s new ordinance.

The city switched to the sound-meter testing.

As motorcycles soar in popularity, the Ohio-based AMA finds itself battling noise bans in cities across the country.

"Noise has been an issue for decades," Wood said, noting that the 83-year-old association launched a pre-World War II biker sound-awareness campaign with a character dubbed "Muffler Mike."

"We’ve seen it across the country on an increasing basis in recent years," he said, as cities seek to combat an increasingly noisy world.