One man's point of view (not mine)

[cactusjack]

I found this in the Opinions section of this morning's Arizona Republic. The writer is an LA Times columnist.

Excess motorcycle din cuts our quality of life

by John Johnson Jr. - Sept. 22, 2009 12:00 AM
Los Angeles Times

Summer is ending and not a moment too soon. In my seaside Long Beach neighborhood in Southern California, the warm months used to be a time when residents threw open windows to let in the sound of surf. But open windows are no longer an option.

Summer is now the season of the cacophonous roar, a time when phalanxes of motorcycles head for the beach cities, piloted by black-helmeted, big-bellied men who think "Easy Rider" was about them.

Visit any coastal community or travel mountain roads on a summer weekend and you will see them: desktop rebels rumbling along in vast, growling herds. Not satisfied with the feel of the wind on their faces, they aren't happy unless heads are turning and ears are bleeding.

As I researched this topic, I discovered I was not alone in my outrage. Indignation abounds on the Internet - along with alarming information. One Web site reported that 45 percent of motorcycles have been illegally modified to make them louder. The California Air Resources Board puts the number at about 85 percent, while a biking-industry group says it's closer to 40 percent.

This was a revelation. Motorcycles come with a muffler and catalytic converter to dampen engine noise and lessen air pollution. Why buyers would remove them is a mystery.

An aide to my city councilwoman, Suja Lowenthal, told me that his boss has tried to combat the problem. He said she pushed the police to set up checkpoints to catch the noisiest offenders. Great, I told him, so why haven't I ever seen one in my neighborhood? Probably, he said, because the police have their hands full with serious crime.

Haven't Bill Bratton and Rudy Giuliani finally killed the notion that cops should ignore nuisance crimes to free themselves up for the big stuff? In New York and Los Angeles, a different approach to policing has shown that addressing quality-of-life crimes - graffiti and noise prominent among them - is crucial to preventing violent crime. If you ignore the little stuff, good citizens move out. Pretty soon, the neighborhood deteriorates and serious crime moves in.

California state Sen. Fran Pavley has introduced a bill that would give police the authority to inspect pollution-control equipment on motorcycles. Although presenting itself as an air-quality measure, the bill would snare a lot of the loudest bikers because they tend to remove the catalytic converters to up the decibel level. The bill might work, if it's ever passed.

The attitude of the cycling crowd might be summed up by Tony Huerta, director of a Southern California biker club called American Thunder. "I do not agree with the state involving there (sic) noses where they should not be," Huerta wrote to me in an e-mail. "Leave all of us riders alone."

I'd be happy to, Tony, if you left the rest of us alone. Your pack seems to think that the laws apply only to squares and that carefree rebels can ignore them.

To my mind, the guy who wears different-colored socks is a free spirit. The one who purposely tampers with his vehicle to harass fellow human beings is a thug.