More people bumping will not directly result in it becoming more socially acceptable. It's becoming less and less socially acceptable because more people do it, and consequently more people are doing it irresponsibily. I really don't think it will ever become socially acceptable to the point where it becomes a normal occurence of everyday life.
I agree with you for the most part though. It's not like you have to keep the sound completely in your car at all times no matter what, just be responsible when doing it. If it's in the middle of day and you're driving to work, feel free to blast it, thats why we spend so much money. I think there are only a few aspects of bumping responsibily:
1) Keep the windows up
2) Sound deadening
3) Don't bump loud in residential neighborhoods
4) Don't bump loud late at night.
I think pretty much all of our views can be expressed with this, from the BCAE site:
As most of you have noticed, the noise ordinances have become much tougher lately. Most of this is due to idiots, yes IDIOTS, who drive through residential areas with their windows down while their system is playing at full power. To make things worse, the music they listen to has all sorts of foul language that's not suitable for small children, (who may be playing outside). There are even a few people, who are even beyond idiot status, that play their systems at full power through residential areas after 10:00 PM (when many people go to bed). I don't believe that this type of behavior is good for the industry. If the fines get too stiff, people will stop buying large systems. If this happens, more people will get out of car audio (who wants a mediocre system). People get interested in things because they're exciting. A deck and four 6.5" speakers are not going to interest many of the younger car audio enthusiasts. If car audio enthusiasts keep annoying more and more people, the fines will keep getting tougher. All of this will only reduce interest in the equipment that fuels the industry. If you want to listen to your system at full volume, get out on the highway where there's little chance of bothering anyone. When you get to a red light, turn it down. If the only thing attractive about you is your 'system', you have some work to do. Bottom line... Think about what you're doing. Think about other people. It's not the end of the world if you have to turn the volume down for a little while.
