Severe issues with noise

I would like to quote a few sentences from the Noise Ordinance for the City of Palo Alto, California:

9.10.040 Commercial and industrial property noise limits.
No person shall produce, suffer or allow to be produced by any machine or device, or any combination of same, on commercial or industrial property, a noise level more than eight dB above the local ambient at any point outside of the property plane.
(Ord. 4634 § 2 (part), 2000)

Ok, what we have here is a law by the City of Palo Alto which says that its basically wrong to make noise lounder than 8 dB above the background level for commercial or for industrial activities.

Incidentally, the limit set in the same ordinance for residential noise is slightly lower. It makes sense that industrial and commercial activities might require operation of equipment or involve other activites which generate noise up to 8 dB.

What is striking here is that a very high number of private vehicles such as motorcycles, trucks, and cars emit noise that is far in excess of 8 dB. In other words, there are many, many vehciles on roadways emitting noises well in the range of 10-20 dB above ambient, solely for personal transportation purposes. Even for commercial transportation purposes such noise emissions would be totally unnecessary and inexcusable.

Clearly there is a very serious problem at hand. There is recognition in some places of the harmful nature of noise, yet presently there is really no uniform standard which really protects citizens, and definitely not any sort of uniform enforcement.

It is inconceivable that people deliberately modify the exhaust systems of their vehicles to emit more noise, and even more so that some vehicle manufacturers cater to those who desire loud vehicles with some of their models.