Cheyenne City Council approves vehicle noise ordinance

CHEYENNE — After several weeks of debate, public comment and unanswered questions, the Cheyenne City Council voted Monday night to approve an ordinance governing vehicle mufflers, excessive smoke and unreasonable noise.

However, there was one stipulation: that council members would review the Cheyenne Police Department’s findings one year from now.

Council members approved the ordinance following a long stretch of public comment, during which most people stated they are either in support of the ordinance as long as some changes are made —  or they are not in support of it at all.

Local resident Nick Dodson said he thinks the ordinance is “entirely arbitrary,” and that it puts police officers and judiciary officials in a difficult position of having to determine how loud is too loud without many guidelines.

“As it is written, I truly, truly believe this is so arbitrary of putting the officers, the judiciary and, indeed, enthusiasts and young people in a position of conflict,” Dodson said, “and that cannot be good for this community.”

Chris Shaw, a member of the local motor community, came before the council with a personal testimony — that working on vehicle sound systems has become a passion of his after struggling with addiction, and he does not want his children going down that same path. (He is now nine years sober.)

“We’re trying to get (my kids) into something to be passionate about,” Shaw said. “… I don’t think it should be a problem if we have our music out loud, and that’s what I’m trying to get my kids into, so they have a passion versus the line of addiction like I went through.”

One woman, who introduced herself as Nancy, gave a different perspective, saying she’s done research on excessive noise and found it increases the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease and more.

“It raises that (chance from) 16% to 27% for these things,” Nancy said. “... And so I just want to throw that out as something to think about when you’re discussing noise. It’s not just about noise.”

Other commenters raised further concern about leaving it up to a police officer’s discretion to decide whether motorcycles will be targeted more frequently than cars. 

They also brought up the jailable offense portion of the ordinance, arguing that loud motorcycles can save the rider’s life by letting cars know a motorcycle is nearby and expressing concern about taking away something young people are passionate about.

“Yes, there are other bad actors doing stuff every night,” said Ryan Blue, a member of the local car community, “but I just don’t think it’s something that should be taken away from the youth. … And if we drive away the youth, I just don’t know what’s going to become of the city in the future.”

Mayor Patrick Collins reminded commenters that the jailable offense portion of the ordinance cannot be changed or removed because it was taken directly from Wyoming state statute.

Andrew Aragon, a Cheyenne community member and longtime motorcycle rider, said he thinks the ordinance is simply not ready yet.

“Maybe we should try to monitor it, see how it goes, but not enforce it 100%,” Aragon said. “Put an open and close date, and then readdress it.”

Councilwoman Michelle Aldrich began the council’s discussion by saying she also thinks there are many valid questions about federal guidelines, factory stock vehicles that are loud, and how vehicle modification violations will be addressed.

For these reasons, she moved to amend the ordinance to include a review to take place in one year, during which CPD would present data that’s been collected as a result of the ordinance being enforced.

“We’ve had a lot of policing done by the car community and motorcycle community of their own members, and we’re making great progress,” Aldrich said. “I’d like to be able to find some common ground, and if we try this for one year, and then we look at it a year from now and it’s not working or it needs to be tweaked or it needs to be changed, we can make those changes.”

For example, Aldrich said, she’d like to see the number of tickets issued, whether those tickets were related to modified muffler/exhaust systems or noise itself, whether the violator was a motorcyclist or in a car, and the time of day and location where the ticket was issued.

The council unanimously approved the ordinance with the amendment to review the results on or before Oct. 31, 2026.

This story was published on Sept. 24, 2025.