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On my 30 mile commute to work, I see at least 3 police cars waiting around for someone to ticket. They are not being “diverted” from anything. They make money writing tickets.
Let me tell you why my bike is loud, because apparently, only people who ride tend to understand.
There are 2 main concepts at work in traffic:
#1. Herd mentality.
#2. What I call the mother duck syndrome.
#1 is obvious when you see it - everyone just follows along in tight knit packs or herds. There is no room to maneuver and no room means little time to execute an evasion reaction. This is not a problem in a car because they can be seen more and can just bump into each other if need be. It is a problem for a bike because they are smaller and not as visible in other vehicles blind spot.
#2 is where people tend to follow another vehicle that is going at or around the same speed they are. Look around you while you drive and see people staring off into a daze thinking of one thing or another - not quite driving. Or they are texting or blabbing on a cell phone with a small percentage of attention on actual driving. Or maybe you will see the myopic geezer who can barely see over the steering wheel. They can get away with this by using the mother duck principle i.e. they just follow the person in front of them and copy them.
Having my loud bike protects me in both cases. In scenario #1, They can usually hear me even if they can’t see me.
In scenario #2, They will not hover around me because they don’t want to listen to my bike and they will move away.
I stay off the throttle when in neighborhoods and such exactly out of “concern” for others.

I stay off the throttle when in neighborhoods and such exactly out of “concern” for others.

Then there are those that like to 'blip' their Harleys as they slow down and stop at the red light new where I used to live. Seems the harley culture is if it doesn't backfire, it isn't tuned correctly.

Let me tell you why my bike is loud, because apparently, only people who ride tend to understand.

I understand a J&R "silencer" very well. It was to increase performance, not to make noise.

I got over making noise for noise sake when I stopped using clothes pins and playing cards to make noise against the spokes of my Schwinn.