That loud noise

You may have experienced this already: You are lying in bed feeling sleep just about to overtake you when you are jarred awake by someone driving through the neighborhood on what sounds like a machine gun.

But it’s actually just a man on a motorcycle with a modified muffler hot-dogging to make himself feel better --or just to show off-- at the expense of the neighborhood’s peace.

Well, Mandaue City officials have had enough and went after motorcycle drivers with modified mufflers yesterday, impounding 12 motorcycles.

Yes, keep seizing them. Modified mufflers are illegal under Republic Act No. 4136 (Land Transportation and Traffic Code) and Department Order No. 2010-32, which prohibits modifications causing excessive, loud noise, or pollution.

Violators face at least a ?5,000 fine, vehicle impoundment, and confiscation of the illegal muffler.

But somehow this law hasn’t deterred some motorcycle riders who continue to terrorize the silence of neighborhoods with their racket. Is this an offshoot of our culture of noise? The same culture that misleads people into thinking that overly-loud music is a form of worship or celebration, especially during chapel fiestas?

We don’t get the point of a modified muffler. Sure it makes a loud sound, but beyond that ear-splitting cacophony what else? Is this loud sound supposed to make the motorcycle more attractive to the owner? Or make the motorcycle look better to other motorcycle drivers? Or make the owner more appealing to the opposite sex? Or announce his presence to the entire neighborhood? Or is it supposed to send a statement to others that the owner can afford modifications?

Perhaps they think it’s all of the above?

Outside of a few motorcycle enthusiasts --and certainly not all of them-- we really think no one else can appreciate the loud sound coming from a muffler. Many of us even find it downright annoying, especially when they come during the hours when people are supposed to be resting or enjoying silence.