Are SA’s roads too noisy?

Posted 2 September, 2026 Sasha Oelsner

You’re peacefully asleep, tucked up in bed, until a mosquito-thin whine grows into a swarming, full-throttle roar as a souped-up car tears past, rattling the windowpanes and jolting you unceremoniously awake.

Now you’re wide awake, grumbling about some hooligan’s desperate bid for attention.

The catch? SA Police can pull over a vehicle they suspect to be above legal noise limits and test it, but only while the car is stationary or under controlled conditions.

There are rules for how loud a car can be sitting still. But for actual on-road, drive-by noise, SA Police – like the rest of Australia – currently have to go with their instincts to pull over a vehicle and test if it exceeds the stationary noise limits.

However, all that may be about to change. With the help of new technology, some Australian states, including South Australia, are starting to target local hoon drivers in action, and the unreasonably loud noise that tends to accompany them.

Hoon: Australian and New Zealand slang for a person who drives a vehicle recklessly, aggressively or at dangerously high speeds. As a verb, the act of hooning describes such actions as performing burnouts, street racing and speeding.

Trialling noise detection technology

Earlier this year, the Victorian Government announced plans to trial seven new roadside acoustic cameras that record both images and sound. This follows a completed 12-month New South Wales trial. Meanwhile, Adelaide City Council announced in August it was considering installing the technology on city streets, including on O’Connell Street and Hutt Street.

The cameras are mounted roadside or on transportable poles and are triggered when a passing vehicle exceeds mandated noise limits. Why cameras and not just microphones? Once triggered, these cameras capture images of the offending car’s registration plates for easy identification.

NSW ran the first version of this from December 2024 to late 2025. As the trial was purely about gathering data, no automatic fines were issued. Surprisingly, motorcycles accounted for roughly 55 per cent of the noise events despite being only about four per cent of registered vehicles.

Knowledge of the camera locations and supposed lack of enforcement also added fuel to the fire, as a small, repeat-offending cohort of hoons targeting the area were behind a disproportionate share of the noise. Despite no fines, the data gathered allowed police to coordinate on-road blitzes, resulting in defect notices for modified vehicles.

Victoria won’t wait until the end of the two-year trial to fine noisy motorists. Once the cameras are in place later in 2026, the owners of offending vehicles will be sent a compliance testing notice.

South Australia has no camera trial of its own (yet). SA, like the other states, already has some rules: if your vehicle is found to ‘make unnecessary noise or smoke’, you face a $264 fine plus $108 Victims of Crime Levy.

But how loud is too loud?

SA’s stationary noise limits, with a few exceptions, are:

• 90 decibels for cars built after 1982 (96 decibels for older vehicles)
• 94 decibels for motorcycles and motor trikes built after February 1985 (100 decibels for older vehicles).

For context, sustained exposure to volumes 85 decibels or more starts to risk hearing damage, and every three-decibel increase roughly doubles the sound intensity.

Ninety decibels is about the same volume experienced when pushing a lawnmower.

One hundred decibels, the maximum for an older motorcycle, is about the same as using a chainsaw without ear protection, making it about 10 times more intense than a modern car at its limit.

The problem is, these are the limits for a parked, stationary car, and not one tearing past your window at midnight. There are no rules putting a decibel figure on how loud is too loud while a car or motorcycle is moving.

But this is the gap the noise cameras are aiming to fill and reduce the disturbance caused by passing traffic.