New York: Is it legal to put a train horn on a car?
New York has no express train-horn ban, but a car horn may not be unnecessarily loud or harsh.
New York requires every car to have a horn loud enough to warn of danger, but it may not be used except as a reasonable warning and may not be unnecessarily loud or harsh. A typical train horn, which is far louder than a car horn needs to be, likely fails that standard. A separate rule bars gongs and siren whistles on anything but emergency vehicles. Some cities have their own noise rules as well.
Conditions
- Horn may not be unnecessarily loud or harsh
- Horn use only as a reasonable warning
- No gong or siren whistle on non-emergency vehicles
What the law says
... a suitable and adequate horn or other device for signaling, which horn or device shall produce a sound sufficiently loud to serve as a danger warning but shall not be used other than as a reasonable warning nor be unnecessarily loud or harsh. ... A gong or siren whistle shall not be used on any vehicle other than an authorized emergency vehicle.
Sources
- N.Y. Vehicle and Traffic Law § 375(1)(a), (26) Official · nysenate.gov
Confirm with the state
- Agency
- New York State Department of Motor Vehicles
- Phone
- 1-518-486-9786
- Website
- dmv.ny.gov
How bordering states compare
- Connecticut Allowed with limitsConnecticut has no train horn ban, but no horn may make an unreasonably loud or harsh sound or a whistle.
- Massachusetts Allowed with limitsMassachusetts has no train horn ban, but sounding any horn to make a harsh, objectionable or unreasonable noise is illegal.
- New Jersey Allowed with limitsNew Jersey bars any horn from making an unreasonably loud or harsh sound or a whistle, which a train horn likely breaks.
- Pennsylvania Allowed with limitsPennsylvania bans whistles, whistle-like devices and any unreasonably loud or harsh sound device on vehicles driven on highways.
- Vermont No state limit foundVermont requires a working horn used only as a warning, but no state limit on horn loudness or type was found.