‘Boom cars’ get another hearing
A recent column on “boom cars” with mega-loud audio systems drew a range of responses: from readers who want tougher noise law enforcement to complaints from an audio industry executive who says critics are unfairly maligning the boom culture.
Bob Knotek, who lives in Los Angeles above the Sunset Strip, wrote that he and his neighbors are “at our wits’ end! The noise [from these cars] vibrates our homes, scares our children, our animals and causes anger, frustration and exhaustion.”
As a member of the Hollywood traffic committee and local Community Police Advisory Board, Knotek said over the last few years he has seen an increase in the number of vehicles cruising the Strip and blasting high-decibel sounds from their stereos. Residents in the community are seeking a tougher ordinance to combat the noise pollution that Knotek said has made their lives a “living hell.”
But Ray Windsor, a vice president at Eclipse, a manufacturer of car audio systems in Torrance and a subsidiary of Fujitsu Ten Corp. of America, said high-powered car stereos are being unfairly targeted.
Automotive audio systems -- which can cost from $2,000 to more than $50,000 -- certainly aren’t the only sources of annoying noise, Windsor said.
“Everyone talks about the bad boom cars. But what about cement trucks, garbage trucks or motorcycles? They should also be subject to penalties.”
Under California Vehicle Code Section 27007, it is illegal to have an automotive sound system turned up so that it can be heard 50 feet away. Violators face fines. In some areas, much stiffer penalties for car noise violations can be imposed. In Chicago, for example, boom car drivers risk having their vehicles towed and can be fined as much as $615.
Windsor, 46, said he is concerned that “perhaps the problem is that the people who buy and use these car stereo products are almost all young people and, I guess, quite a few are of minority descent.”
Attorney Peter Eliasberg echoed Windsor’s concern about the possibility of selective enforcement of the anti-noise code.
“It would raise our antennas if only certain groups of people were being swept up under the law,” said Eliasberg, who works for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
Windsor, a director of the Mobile Electronics Retailers Assn., said he was offended by comments by law enforcement that police sometimes find gang members using loud boom cars to make their presence known. He has a boom car of his own and occasionally cranks up the stereo. He said he hopes on those occasions the police don’t “confuse me with a gangbanger.”
Creating powerful sound systems is no different from manufacturing automobiles that can reach speeds of 150 mph, Windsor said.
And just as automakers don’t advise people to drive their vehicles that fast on the freeway, the audio industry doesn’t recommend that people turn up the volume to eardrum-shattering levels.
Although most after-market audio systems can produce 130 decibels of sound -- well above the 85-decibel limit at which hearing damage can occur -- in theory the sky is the limit.
Some car stereo enthusiasts load their vehicles with monster audio equipment and compete in formal contests to determine who has the loudest system. Those systems can hit or exceed 170 decibels, Windsor said. He and others in the audio system industry wear ear plugs when they attend these competitions to promote products, he said.
Contestants don’t sit inside their cars -- they stand outside and wear sound-deadening headsets or ear plugs. Sound levels are so dangerously high that they must be measured by a microphone placed inside the vehicle. They can create so much pressure in a vehicle that the windshield can blow out, Windsor said.
Although the thought of what that could do to someone’s eardrums isn’t pleasant, a shattered windshield is not a bad thing from a marketing point of view, he acknowledges.
Audio system manufacturers caution owners to listen safely, but “certainly appreciate the idea that if a kid thinks [blowing out a windshield] makes this brand really cool,” he will want to buy it, Windsor said.
About 85% of car stereo buyers are young men, according to industry surveys. For some, the audio system’s power becomes an identity issue. There’s the “desire to be the biggest and baddest,” he said.
Finally, a number of readers wrote in to ask how to report offending car stereo noise.
Police say the best method is not to approach the driver but to note the vehicle’s license number and contact the local police or sheriff’s department or, if the noise occurs in an area under the California Highway Patrol’s jurisdiction, the region’s CHP office.
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Jeanne Wright cannot answer mail personally but responds in this column to automotive questions of general interest. Please do not telephone. Write to Your Wheels, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. E-mail: jeanrite @aol.com.
