Long before Will Mackintosh joined the Fredericksburg City Council, he had already gotten an earful about the issue.
Not only did he field an unusually high volume of complaints from future constituents while knocking on doors, but he’d also heard firsthand on the streets of downtown Fredericksburg.
“This is like, by far, the number one quality of life issue that I heard from people was loud mufflers, essentially,” said Mackintosh, who was elected in November 2023 and holds an at-large seat on city council. “But on the list of things the cops have to worry about, it’s pretty far down on the list, you know?”
Mackintosh, however, was determined to make it a priority.
After being elected but before taking office, he sat in on some of the council’s discussions about their legislative agenda — annual meetings with state lawmakers during which the city outlines legislation officials would like to see pursued.
At his request, the city mentioned the issue to State Sen. Tara Durant (R-Stafford), who signaled support for a pilot project but ultimately didn’t introduce legislation during the 2024 General Assembly session.
A year later, Mackintosh broached the issue again, this time with the help of Preston Bryant, a lobbyist with whom the city contracts to negotiate on its behalf in Richmond. When legislators convened for a short session, the message was received loud and clear, and on Feb. 22, a law co-patroned by Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg) passed both the House and Senate.
Cole’s bill, HB 2550, authorizes counties and cities in Planning Districts 8 (which includes Fairfax County) and 16 (which includes Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George and Caroline counties) “to place and operate noise abatement monitoring systems, defined in the bill, for the purpose of recording and enforcing exhaust system violation.”
Essentially, it creates a two-year pilot program in those localities, during which they can pass their own laws, known as “enabling ordinances.”
Why couldn’t the city simply draft and pass its own ordinance enabling such enforcement of noisy vehicles?
For the answer, you have to go all the way back to Reconstruction, when Iowa Supreme Court Justice John F. Dillon authored a legal opinion that now bears his name. In “Dillon Rule” states such as Virginia, localities must derive their powers — like modified-muffler enforcement — directly and explicitly from the state.
In practice, Mackintosh said the technology resembles a speed camera like the ones the city recently installed in two school zones last fall.
“And this is basically the same thing,” said Mackintosh, “except with an array of microphones, and it’s listening for the decibel level. And my understanding is that the array of microphones is configured such that … the machine can identify the point source of the sound.”
Violators would be issued a traffic summons, generated by a contractor and validated by personnel from the city’s police department before being issued officially. The law provides that fines wouldn’t exceed $100, and a ticket wouldn’t go on a driver’s operating record or be reported to their insurance.
Most people, Mackintosh reasoned, have sympathy for folks whose mufflers simply aren’t working. He does, too.
“It’s the people who’ve like modified their mufflers on purpose to be loud and who are like ripping through town, clearly enjoying the effect that their noise is making,” he said.
Were such an enforcement system in place, it would have likely resolved or prevented altogether the recent downtown drama involving a guy blaring a truck-mounted train horn in the Darbytown area. The saga, which has been chronicled on Reddit, got personal for Mackintosh when he was walking home around 10 p.m. following a recent meeting of the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (FAMPO).
“I heard the horn, and I didn’t know what it was,” he recalled. “It scared the shit out of me.”
Before enforcement could begin, however, the city must first pass an enabling ordinance; HB 2550 simply empowers localities included in the pilot program to do so. A procurement process would follow, with the chosen company taking a cut of ticket fees.
And it’s no sure thing that Gov. Glenn Youngkin will even sign the bill into law. To that end, Mackintosh took to Reddit himself, imploring the netizens of r/Fredericksburg to email Youngkin in support of the legislation.
“I’ve been rather shocked at what some of the things the governor signs and some of the things he won’t sign,” Cole said. “So, I honestly believe it’s the luck of the draw. We’ve got to wait and see what’s going to happen. [Youngkin] talks about having safety for our communities. And this is very much a safety issue, and making sure that our people are able to enjoy themselves.”
