Sadly, my guess is it will not have any effect on noise levels. I've seen reports that said 70% of vehicles breaking noise limits are motorbikes, 20% a passenger cars and only 10% are trucks. Correlates perfectly with what I see around me, most loud vehicles are "tuned up" motorbikes. People who need their motorbike to "sound cool" will not switch to EV anytime soon. If they do they will find a way to make it noisy. Just how car brain operates.
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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there are noise laws, but police do not enforce.
As someone who lives in an urban environment I just really wish the cops would give a crap about loud vehicles. Like, I get that they want to have their volume, but I'd like to have conversations and listen to podcasts and such on public sidewalks without being drowned out even at max volumes every 10 or so minutes.
Also gas motorcyclists are convinced that loud bikes are safer and don't care that this makes everyone dislike them. Personally I'd love to see studies into light based presence signaling instead. Something like a unique color of light that motorcycles have to be showing in all directions and beaming at their perimeter on the ground would likely work better by not just giving a general announcement that what may be a motorcycle is somewhere it would make it crystal clear you do not let your vehicle make contact with the [color] light. Now frankly I'd settle for only enforcing noise restrictions on motorcycles as they're completely optional.
that and headlights. noise is pollution, but blinding headlights are a more dangerous pollution (and also equally obnoxious as the noise)
Yeah, I feel you. Where I live bikes are super popular and half of them have illegal exhaust. From what I gathered police can't really do anything because they have valid technical revisions. They change the exhaust for the revision and change it back after. Police can't invalidate it just because it sounds laud (even if it's obvious). I was reading about Singapore. They had the same problem, changed the laws and now it's getting better. What you have to do is simply make possession and sale of illegal/modified exhausts illegal. In EU no one cares. EU has general noise guidelines and acts as if changing them will help. Meanwhile bikers simply ignoring the guidelines.
The safety argument is bullshit. Motorbikes are dangerous because people ride them like idiots. I read articles in local newspaper all the time about dead bikers and most of the time they just lose control and hit the barriers. Laud bike is not going to save you from your own lack of responsibility. It they would drive below speed limit and stopped squeezing between cars all the time they wouldn't need loud bikes to be safe. On top of that most accidents happen on weekend when people are simply riding bikes for fun. If your hobby can't be practiced safely without harming others it's a stupid hobby.
I went to Hong Kong recently. I hadn’t been there for at least ten years.
On day 1, woke up, saw clear blue skies. Was ecstatic! What are the chances of clear weather in winter? Gotta get out and about to enjoy it.
Day 2: clear skies again! This is amazing! What’re the chances?!
Later that evening, I caught up with a friend for dinner and she filled me in on the EV incentives in neighbouring Guangdong province such that EVs are now the default choice and most of the fleet had turned over.
Alongside other measures, EVs helped clean up the air and get rid of the gross haze.
Same in LA
That said, as the tires of electric vehicles tend to wear faster due to their heavier weight...
This gets repeated again and again, but hasn't been my personal experience. I'd say my tyres are easily lasting twice as long than my previous diesel car.
it happens with drivers of the heavy, overpowered EVs.
We are now selling cars to idiots with more power and torque than a 70s F1 car.
There’s less brake dust as well.
Mine are probably lasting about as long as previous non-EV cars, but I’m also terrible about getting them rotated when it’s not combined with an oil change.
I'm sure it's true for the 9k+ lb. Hummer EV and Silverados but my sedan is as light or lighter than ICE vehicles in it's class.
It's not the weight. It's the torque.
Is there an argument that with regen in EVs there is a smoother transition in speed continuing to less wear to tyres/roads?
I certainly drive my EV more calmly than ICE due to the relaxed vibe of an EV
Pretty sure the weight has a significant impact on tire wear...
And EVs don't have to change gear¹, so smoother driving and less wear.
¹ automatic also has gears.
A lot of cars have CVTs. No changing gears on those.
not necessarily. Toyota uses planetary gears which also change transmission without discrete "gear shifting". Although going fully EV removes that necessity of course.
Planetary gears have been used in automatic transmissions for as long as they have existed. I think you're thinking of CVTs.
Yes, exactly! Thanks! EDIT: According to Wikipedia, the CVT in Toyotas is based on planetary gears, so both seems correct.