Mexico has never been a quiet country and Mérida is no exception to that. The sound of amplified music is everywhere. Maybe not to everyone’s taste but at least it’s music – more or less. Over the past few years a new noise scourge has infected Mérida and many cities both inside and outside the country. The source of this antisocial noise is primarily motorbikes with modified exhausts so that they can be as annoying to pedestrians and businesses as possible. Some cars, notable American muscle cars are culprits too but the majority of the noise is from motorbikes.

Motorbikes are not inherently noisy and some such as the police motorbikes are at least as quiet as a small car. The choice of producing deafening noise is made by the owner of said vehicles. Aside from the obvious negative physical and mental health effects this noise is not be good for business nor tourism. Only time will tell if the authorities will take any action or just allow the noise to increase until there is a popular backlash. Ironically public buses used to be a source of a lot of traffic noise and now are the quietest vehicles on the street