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20 years

New regulation on vehicular road noise comes into effect on Friday

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costa rica traffic

(ICR Archive)

October 22nd, 2015 (ICR News) Stricter rules aimed at controlling vehicular noise are set to come into effect on Friday.  In addition to the new standards, the regulation will for the first time also apply to heavy vehicles.

 

Passenger vehicles will be limited to a maximum 90db of noise; small cargo vehicles and microbuses, 92db; medium and large buses, 94db; heavy vehicles, 96db; motorcycles up to 250cc, 94db; and motorcycles more than 250cc, 96db.

 

The regulation also implements stricter testing of vehicular noise during mandatory annual vehicle inspections performed by Riteve.  Noise levels exceeding those above will result in automatic failure of the inspection.

 

Traffic Police, meanwhile will be purchasing 30 sonometers for carrying out roadside testing of noise levels, and will issue fines of ¢22,000 for vehicles that exceed the above noise levels.

 

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  • Yeims

    Potential damage to hearing begins at 80 – 85 Db, and something everyone should know is that the noise level doubles every 10 Db, meaning that 90 Db of noise is double the level of 80 Db.

  • costarick

    Use of Jake brakes (engine brakes) by large trucks in urban neighbourhoods should definitely be a target for the Transit Police.

    • Roberto

      Yesterday I was behind a large semi-truck in Santa Ana that was passing a condo project and he was using the Jake Brakes, which set off various car alarms, adding to the noise pollution. But IMO, the LOUD motorcycle mufflers(?) are much more annoying and prevalent.
      Nothing will change.

    • Michael C

      De acuerdo! I live close enough to Pista 32 to get more than my share of Jake brake noise! Transito could haul in a ton of money if they inforced compliance on heavy trucks!

  • dr meno

    How does this apply to trucks Jake Brakes?

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

      This should apply to Jake brakes, according to the regulation, except in “emergency circumstances” (such as avoiding an accident, child running into the road, and so forth).

      • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

        Side note however – there already was a prohibition on using Jake brakes in “populated areas” unnecessarily.

        • Yeims

          The big buses here have virtually the same motors as the bog trucks, and the buses have jake brakes too, except you never hear them because they have mufflers on the jake brakes. The big trucks are either not required to have the mufflers, or, as in the case of the motorcycles without mufflers, the fact is overlooked.

  • Michael C

    The government could realize an enormous influx of traffic fines, and the population could enjoy a more peaceful life, if Transito (and soon, Fuerza Publica) would enforce noise violations with a heavy hand!

  • duke ster

    I have voiced this opinion for years! The money that would pour in to the govt. coffers if they will simply enforce a fine for loud motorcycles and Jake Brakes would be enough to pave every bad road in CR. However if you have read my former expose’ about the methods they use to repair these roads you would agree that money won’t fix the road hole problems. ( They either really don’t know how to repair the roads correctly or are smart enough to repair them with faulty methods in order to keep them selves in repeat road repair work) They use cold tar which is water based and therefore a method which is HUGELY improper as rain water washes the tar away. An asphalt with an oil base will hold well to another asphalt and is impervious to water.

  • Aitor Xaranga

    Good luck with the Harleys!!!

  • Aitor Xaranga

    Please ensure that you post the first 5 “multados “! This will never happen!

  • Righty

    As a truck driver with 23 years of road experience, I say that the use of “Jake Brakes” on a flat road are not only unnecessary but harmful. They do it to save on brake wear. However, in the mountains the “Jake Brake” is a necessary evil, no matter how much noise they make.

  • Richard Hennessy

    What a JOKE…this country is a JOKE…who are they kidding? Who is going to enforce this? Only if it’s a gringo who just lost his muffler…Now they want to institute fines for not picking up pet feces….LOL….right, that’ll be another Gringo only fineable offense, just like drinking on the beach…only Gringos need be fined…never a Tico !!!!

  • Ken Morris

    What, no law against the bratty motorists laying on their horns simply because they’re frustrated by traffic jams?

    Maybe in a rewrite of the recent laws dog owners should be obligated to throw the dog shit into the cars of the bratty horn honkers

  • http://www.1dreamgetaway.com aj seaman

    RE. noise: A law requiring bike exhaust pipes to terminate near the riders’ ears would solve two problems: 1. They might think about using mufflers. and 2. Maybe they would not drive like animals.
    RE. SHIT: I regularly walk my 4 German shepherds to the park on the same paved road where dozens of horses and hundreds of cows walk daily. I will never pick up, & neither will the ranchers. The greenery along the road is lovely—I’m certain because of the daily fértilizing.

  • expatin paradise

    You may get some enforcement on the highways for egregious cases, but in the hills where I live, I expect to hear the ATVs buzzing around and heavy trucks using their transmissions to slow their vehicles, just as I still see entire unhelmeted families on one moto, illegal headlight and taillight colors, and all the other violations. These fines, compared to most other traffic fines are also a joke.

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