Maine
This Page Updated 03/23/10
Maine Legislative Session of 2010
The United Bikers of Maine and the Maine
Motorcyclists Political Action Committee has had a very
active February testifying and working with the Transportation
committee concerning two bills under consideration.
This legislative session was the second year of the 124th
legislature here in Maine. There were two bills that were
of concern to motorcyclists. The first was LD 1642, An
Act to Reduce Road Noise within Posted Areas. This bill
was not directly aimed at motorcycles but could in the
end effect them through the establishment of Quite Zones
throughout the state. Basically this bill was aimed at
large commercial trucks, except that it had to exempt
trucks used for interstate commerce because they are regulated
by Federal standards.
At the public hearing held by the Transportation committee
the Department of Transportation testified that it had
no criteria for establishing Quite Zones and did not think
it was feasible to do so. After much discussion during
committee work sessions, an amendment was offered to change
the name of the bill to, An Act Relating to Road Noise.
The amendment would change the language of the bill to
eliminate establishing Quite Zones and would require vehicles
to have a muffler (already required in separate law).
It would also prohibit Amplification of exhaust sound
by modifying the exhaust system and the language directs
the Department of Public Safety, Bureau of State Police
to convene a working group to study issues relating to
Highway Traffic Noise. The study group will report to
the Transportation committee their findings and recommendations
no later than January 15, 2011.
The amendment was accepted and passed through the Transportation
committee. The full legislature voted to pass the bill
and send it to the Governor for his signature.
The second bill, LD1675, An Act to Reduce
Noise Created by Motorcycles and Improve Public Health,
was directly related to motorcycles and was seeking to
raise the sound created by motorcycles to a level of Health
Hazard. This bill’s genesis is the high volume of
motorcyclists who frequent the coastal areas of the compacted
(population wise) southern part of the state. The citizens
in this part of the state are fed up with the minority
of motorcyclists who operate their motorcycles with excessively
loud exhaust systems and these citizens have pushed their
legislators to enact legislation to try and control the
noise. During testimony at the public hearing held by
the Transportation committee it was brought to the attention
of the legislators that only 60% of the registered motorcycles
in the state are inspected. This information changed the
direction of the bill to inspection enforcement as the
legislators felt that if the inspection stickers were
placed on the motorcycle then law enforcement could readily
tell if a motorcycle had been inspected and would increase
compliance with the law. They also felt that this would
solve a lot of the noise issue so they voted to put the
stickers on the motorcycle. It ended up with language
that specifies the inspection sticker will be displayed
on the rear of the motorcycle on a separate plate from
the registration tag. This provision will be effective
on 1 January, 2012.
The Department of Public Safety, Bureau of State Police
was directed to convene a study group to study the issues
relating to motorcycle noise and report their findings
and recommendations to the Transportation committee no
later than January 15, 2011. This study group will include
law enforcement officials, local municipalities, affected
citizens groups, the motorcycle industry and motorcyclist
rights groups. The group will investigate the SAE standard
J 2825,’Measurement of Exhaust Sound Pressure Levels
of Stationary On-Highway Motorcycles’ to determine
if it would be applicable to establish testing procedures
for enforcement. It will also investigate the feasibility
of incorporating United States Environmental Protection
Agency noise emission labeling standards into state law.
The amendment was accepted and passed on a unanimous vote.
The full legislature has voted on this bill and it passed
and has been sent to the Governor for his signature.
Because this was the second session of a two year legislature
and only bills of a financial or emergency nature could
be debated we did not have a helmet bill to deal with
this year. Stay tuned
