"Mr. Wright,
I am writing this to you after having read through most of the contents of your 'Anti Boom Car' website. Please let me preface the remainder of this correspondence by saying your disclaimer regarding email from boom cars boys and powerful car audio enthusiasts is an insufficient deterrent with the claims of possible criminal prosecution proving baseless. You have published your email address on a publicly accessible website which contains mostly editorial-type content. I will assume your references to various noise statutes and regulations for different locales are based in fact as I do not care to invest the time and energy to verify them for myself. The rest, however, is mostly opinion finding its origins within your personal distaste for powerful aftermarket mobile audio gear. An opinion which is seemingly generated by multiple occurrences of being annoyed by the same. Editorial writings simply by their nature invite response so if you'd prefer not to receive email from individuals who hold a different point of view I would recommend that you remove your email address from the public's access. Your email address is published accompanied by an invitation to email you. You have no legal standing to censor the content of any correspondence generated by that invitation prior to it being sent to you. You do however fully retain the option to read or not to read such emails once they arrive in your inbox.
I'd like to let you know that I heartily support your right to holding whatever point of view that you'd like on any given subject. To a minor degree I actually support your position on people with "boom cars" (as you've dubbed them) that have no respect for their fellow citizens and as a result of this disrespect annoy the beejeezus out of both their fellow motorists and pedestrians alike. I do think these individuals should be reasonably sanctioned. However, as with any example of a hobby, these extreme participants make up the exception rather than the unwritten rule(s) governing the hobby itself.
I support the right of anyone to have whatever kind of audio gear they choose and/or can afford provided they show themselves to be responsible owners. This includes, but is not limited to, keeping the volume to non-offensive levels at traffic lights, within the confines of residential areas, near churches and hospitals, within industrial complexes, and any other various location(s) where extreme volume levels could potentially expose those who do not care to be exposed to whatever it is that you may be listening to.
I personally have adequate audio equipment in my daily driver to create constant SPL levels in excess of 135 decibels. Would I recommend listening to audio reproduced at these levels for any extended period of time? I most assuredly would not. Some might ask if I would not recommend listening at such volumes then what is the point of owning equipment capable of creating such extremes? I am acquainted with a gentleman who owns a Ferrari who doesn't travel 170mph everywhere he goes. Enough said. The overall tone of your website suggests that you hold the audio equipment itself more to blame for the nuisances created with it more so than the failure of its owners to properly and respectfully apply it. Outside of my car's exterior cosmetics possibly indicating that the car's owner is potentially interested in high-end mobile audio no one excepting those who have personally ridden in my car or seen it at competitions could tell you with any certainty that it is, in fact, a "boom car." Why is that? I, like so many others that I know, am a responsible owner/user. I do not blast the volume when riding through my neighborhood for a host of reasons with two of those being outstanding: 1) I have respect for my neighbors. 2) I fail to see a need to advertise there are things contained in my car that would be worthwhile for a thief to attempt to liberate from me. I turn the volume down at traffic lights as I figure that if the operators of the other vehicles present at the intersection wanted to listen to the same thing I was listening to they already would be. In all actuality more often than not during daylight hours it would be more likely to find me listening to AM talk radio. There are no extreme bass or volume enhancements which appreciably augment AM listening to any positive degree so the equipment it is reproduced on really makes no difference whether it be outstanding or mediocre gear.
Your re-telling of the story about the OU student who could not hear the audible warnings of an oncoming train allegedly due to the nearby presence of an overly loud audio system, while tragic, is also misleading. Whether there happened to be a disrespectful car audio user in the vicinity or not DID NOT relieve the responsibility of the individual driver to be hyper-aware of their surroundings when approaching and/or crossing a set or sets of railroad track. I once worked for a transportation company that contracted to the Kansas City Southern, Union Pacific, and Burlington Northern railroads to haul the rail crews back and forth in between tours of duty. During that time I learned alot more about locomotives and their respective loads than I had known previously. Since time immemorial there have been countless incidents involving trains and passenger automobiles. As of yet the passenger car (or truck, van, motorcycle, or SUV) has yet to earn even a draw in these battles. It actually becomes irrelevant if their were extreme noise levels obscuring the audible warning signals emanating from the train. There's no excuse for the abdication of personal responsibility and the final outcome of that tragic incident is inarguably the result of inattentiveness on part of the OU student. I am not so naive to be deceived into thinking that the misuse of "Boom Cars" isn't a distraction. However, if drivers allow themselves to become distracted from their duties as a motor vehicle operator by outside audible stimuli to such a degree that they outright abandon that responsibility altogether then possibly they do not deserve the operator's license required to do so legally. Driving is a privilege - not a right.
Tell me, Mr. Wright, exactly what positive effect does the horn on a train or any bells and/or whistles present at a railroad crossing provide for those persons in our society that are completely deaf and yet can still legally and safely operate a motor vehicle? If an individual such as this were to be involved in an accident with a train and there so happened to be a "boom car" present at the intersection during the incident how exactly could the presence of that "boom car" have affected that accident?
Furthermore your mentions of boom cars along with Harley-Davidson motorcycles and other vehicles with 'super-loud' exhaust systems disproportionately depleting the world's energy supply is also erroneous. The majority of boom car owners use whatever vehicle is their daily driver to house their extreme audio equipment. When assuming that the individual in question is your average Joe Blow, middle-class citizen...if one were to invest considerable sums of money in car audio gear doesn't it make the best sense to install it in whatever vehicle they invest the majority of their drive time?
My car is driven for pleasure in my leisure time...as is the case for almost every car owner in existence. However, this is most certainly NOT its sole or even its primary use. It is also my transportation to work, to my kids' school functions, and whatever other place necessity or choice may find me going. Many motorcycle owners also use their bikes for primary transportation. Harley-Davidsons, along with most every motorcycle on the planet, are much more fuel efficient than any car you might purchase. Those that aren't will generally be on par with the mileage found in most average compact cars. Vehicles with modified exhaust exhibit no more fuel consumption than an example of the same vehicle type with an average or stock exhaust system. In fact, assuming that no other mechanical aspects of a vehicle outside of the exhaust are modified, the lessened backpressure against a motor caused by enhancing the exhaust components to units that are less restrictive will actually cause an increase in mileage provided the driving habits of the owner do not change to any measurable degree following the installation of the said components.
As with any other hobby not all car enthusiasts are societal menaces. Are some? Yes. Are some extreme sports enthusiasts nuisances on the street? Yes, but I have yet to see you launch a crusade against ESPN and the X-Games. Are some professional race drivers road dangers in their private lives? I know the answer to this to be "Yes" for a fact. Still, I see no campaign against NASCAR, Inc. or the NHRA being headed by you. Is new building or home construction the source of audible annoyance that some private citizens are subjected to? Well, yes! Again, the answer is yes but I've found no evidence of any effort forwarded by you to restrict or eliminate residential or commercial construction.
While I sympathize with any discomforts you have had to suffer at the hands of the disrespectful I think your energies would be better dedicated to education rather than persecution. This highly likely won't be an opinion that you share and that's fine too. As you are certainly entitled to yours I am equally entitled to mine."
