Plenty has been posted on social media lately about live music in downtown Plymouth. Hundreds of commenters have reacted to reporter Fred Thys’s July 25 story about a testy exchange between Select Board member Charlie Bletzer and Erin Murphy, who owns the Su Casa restaurant on Main Street. The back-and-forth dragged out over two meetings, consuming way too much oxygen. In the end, board members David Golden and Dick Quintal sided with Bletzer, denying Su Casa’s request to feature Pat and Mal Fey, a popular brother/sister duo, performing on the sidewalk for a few summer evenings. (It’s worth noting that Pat plays an acoustic guitar and Mal has a sweet voice. Not exactly full-on Foo Fighters.)
Bletzer had a lot to say about the alleged disruption caused by outdoor music in the downtown area. Too bad he and other Select Board members aren’t as vocal about a real nuisance, one I regularly receive complaints about from readers and business owners – loud motorcycles and tricked-out cars roaring through the streets. Maybe some members of the all-male board are more comfortable confronting a woman business owner.
If you spend time downtown or along the waterfront during warmer months, you’ve been subjected to the brain-rattling racket, especially on weekends. The sound can come out of nowhere, like a sneak attack on the senses. Even worse, these aural assaults are often accompanied by music blaring over the engine din.
Not all riders are inconsiderate, but it’s hard not to conclude that some go out of their way to make a statement by shattering the environmental calm for those around them. I’m exercising my personal freedom! Like many things in our society, riding a motorbike has become politicized.
As one emailer wrote, the purposeful din is “like a big F-you” to the rest of us. Not how I might phrase it, but there is an element of defiance in the actions of riders who throttle up as they pass people dining outdoors or walking along the street. I’ve seen dogs cower and startled children cover their ears. Collective blood pressure undoubtably rises.
“Too many motorcyclists think they have the right to do whatever suits them, without any thought for others,” another reader wrote. (My leaf blower-obsessed neighbor falls into this category.) He asked that his name be withheld, fearing retribution. That’s a common concern of people who email me about the subject.
Another name-withheld reader who lives on a “quiet, scenic road” south of downtown wondered why Plymouth police and safety officials don’t seem to do anything about this chronic disturbance.
“How these bikes pass inspection I know not,” he wrote. “How they pass police with a deafening roar without a care of being pulled over, I do know. Police in every town, not just Plymouth, totally ignore this menace and have for decades.”
It sure appears that way. Which is why I asked Plymouth Police Capt. Jason Higgins to explain the department’s position on noise enforcement. (We spoke before he went on paid leave in June while under investigation for an alleged domestic incident involving his father.)
“Some of these motorcyclists are complete [deleted],” he acknowledged. “Their engines are too loud, they ride six and 10 deep, and they can be aggressive, as well.”
So what can be done about it? No one is proposing banning motorcycles and tricked out cars in the business district, but it doesn’t seem like a big ask to require their owners to act civilly.
Putting a lid on the racket, however, isn’t an easy proposition.
“When we see [loud and aggressive motorcycle riders] we’re going to pull those people over,” Higgins said. The problem is proving that they are breaking the rules, he explained. The town has a noise ordinance in its bylaws – Chapter 120, if you’re interested – but it’s vague and subjective. Here’s the key paragraph:
It shall be unlawful for any person or persons occupying or having charge of any building, structure, vehicle or premises or any part thereof in the town to cause or suffer or allow any unnecessary, loud, excessive or unusual noises in the operation of any radio, phonograph or other mechanical sound-making device or instrument, or reproducing device or instrument, or in the playing of any band, orchestra, musician or group of musicians, or in the use of any device to amplify the aforesaid, or the making of loud outcries, exclamations or other loud or boisterous noise or loud and boisterous singing by any person or group of persons, or in the use of any device to amplify the aforesaid noise, where the noise is plainly audible at a distance of 150 feet from the building, structure, vehicle or premises in which or from which it is produced.
The bylaw carries a $50 fine, which is only slightly more than a few boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk these days – not much of a deterrent. Even when police issue a citation, Higgins said, the court will want evidence if it’s appealed. That means measuring decibel levels. Handheld meters or a sound-measuring phone app aren’t acceptable, according to Higgins, and commercial devices are “cumbersome and not effective.”
“We’re going to specifically be targeting this” during the summer, he said. “We’re looking out for it on our walking beats as well as [in] our marked units. And we’re putting an unmarked unit down there to combat some of the noise as well.”
Beyond warnings and tickets – both mildly punitive measures – I wonder whether “quiet zone” signs aimed at motorcyclists might raise awareness, since the goal isn’t to fine people but to get them to be nice to their fellow humans (and wildlife). Even if a small percentage of riders voluntarily complied, it would lower the volume by a notch or two. For what it’s worth, Higgins said signs would make it easier for police to enforce the noise ordinance.
Town Manager Derek Brindisi said that approach was tried in the summer of 2022. “We inserted message boards at the two access points of Court Street encouraging motorcyclists to ‘throttle down’ when entering downtown,” he wrote in an email. Apparently, it wasn’t effective.
Higgins also told me he believes that some businesses, “especially the restaurants, love these motorcycles coming in” because their owners spend money on food and alcohol.
But none of the restaurant and shop owners I spoke with said noise pollution boosts business.
And like the readers who feared a backlash if they vented publicly, several businesspeople declined to comment on the record out of concern for their safety. Two Main Street merchants even reported being physically threatened by motorcyclists after complaining to them. Not the kind of clientele to build a business plan around.
Katy Thayer, co-owner of Uva Wine Bar, was willing to go on the record. She said the behavior of some motorcyclists is “disrespectful” to downtown residents, businesses, and the public.
“It’s nice to open your windows on a beautiful day,” she said in an email, “but it’s a struggle to have to listen to the blaring music and revving engines from the motorcycles.” She favors exploring “any and all ideas” to address the issue.
Lea Filson, president and CEO of See Plymouth, also views loud motorcycles as a negative for tourism. Enforcement, she said, occurs only intermittently.
“When it happens, it does work,” she said in an email. “I know this because when I lived on Leyden Street, that was the result when [Plymouth police] put patrols there. My sense is that if we enforced it all the time, like other places, we could begin to get a handle on it.”
That led me to a question that no one was able to answer: What is it about Plymouth that makes it a magnet for motorcycles? Some people theorized that it began when the now defunct T-Bones Roadhouse operated on Main Street and became known as biker hangout. It was not unusual to see a couple dozen motorbikes parked outside on a Saturday or Sunday.
Or maybe it’s the convenient loop along Water Street and through downtown that attracts riders. It’s ideal for cruising.
Whatever the reason, other tourist-centric coastal communities I’ve been to – like Newport, RI, and Portsmouth, NH – don’t seem to have the same critical mass of bike riders. A spokesman for the tourism group Destination Salem said it’s not an issue there, either.
“We do not experience excessive motorcycle noise disturbances in the downtown area,” the spokesperson said. “In October there was the [Muscular Dystrophy Association] ride from Everett with a motorcycle procession that was outside of the norm…but that was the extent [of it].”
A downtown everyone can enjoy, without earplugs. It sounds like music to my ears. Unfortunately, Plymouth officials so far seem more concerned about six strings on the sidewalk than Harleys on the street.
Mark Pothier can be reached at mark@plymouthindependent.org. One other thing: Unlike our news stories, this column sometimes includes the author’s opinions.