Cars have more trouble going fast through narrow streets, so they go slower. Motorcycles and scooters in the city tends to have small engines for fuel economy a

Cars have more trouble going fast through narrow streets, so they go slower. Motorcycles and scooters in the city tends to have small engines for fuel economy and price, so they have to run at much higher RPMs compared to cars for the same speed. They also have much less ability to dampen the sound because the exhaust system can only be so long. Then there are people who purposely put loud pipes on. They are better space and efficiency wise, but in terms of low speed noise they sure are worse. Two wheeled vehicles don't tend to encourage the kind of space waste in north american suburbia though, so I think they are still preferable.