City to study noise rules after getting earful from residents

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This article was published 09/11/2021 (1405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg will study ways to reduce the impact of traffic noise, after one councillor received many complaints.

Coun. Matt Allard said complaints about general traffic noise from Winnipeg neighbourhoods are increasing, as well as “spot” noise concerns from vehicles revving their engines or blasting loud music.

He said that’s especially the case for residents living near busier streets.

“(The residents say) ‘I can’t open my window at night because there’s too much noise, I can’t sleep, I can’t enjoy my backyard because there’s just way too much vehicle noise,’” said Allard. “People are saying basically it’s (affecting) their quality of life.”

Council’s public works committee, for which Allard serves as chairman, voted last week to order a public service report on the work and the cost required to update Winnipeg’s motor vehicle noise policy. That policy would be expected to set updated daytime and nighttime noise mitigation standards and outline how they could be enforced.

The St. Boniface councillor said he’s convinced an updated policy with stricter standards is required, after hearing that residents’ complaints were deemed unfounded by the city once they were investigated. He believes the city often found the noise level didn’t warrant any action because the current standards, which were developed in the 1980s, are outdated and fall short of what’s needed.

“Some of our residents are experiencing noise pollution and we need to up our standards,” said Allard.

Lindsey Wilson, chairman of the Island Lakes Residents’ group, said many recent noise complaints have been made in his area, which is in close proximity to Bishop Grandin and Lagimodiere boulevards.

“During the summer months, when a number of residents have their windows open, you can hear these vehicles racing,” said Wilson, noting some noise concerns have also taken place on residential roads within the community. “Any time from 10 at night to four in the morning this goes on, so we’re hearing from residents… Loud noises in a residential community (aren’t appropriate).”

Wilson said he’s glad the city is looking at updating its noise rules, especially if the city can ensure it has enough staff to enforce the changes.

Allard hopes a new standard would help the city set better requirements on when developers must install berms and other sound mitigation structures, to prevent such problems in the future.

A previous city effort to tackle vehicle noise failed last year, when the Manitoba government rejected a city request to use photo radar enforcement to crack down on those with excessively loud mufflers and squealing tires. Such ticketing has been done in other cities, in conjunction with noise sensors.

At the time, the province said photo radar is designed to improve safety and reduce speeding, while other goals for the program were not being considered.

Allard said he’d still like to find a way to address excess noise caused by specific types of vehicles and driving behaviours. He still suspects photo radar may be the best option to achieve that.

“We could quickly set up machines to do (the) work and it would probably be fairly easy to make those revenue neutral, if we set the fines right… There’s a new premier, maybe there’s another opportunity to (ask for this),” he said.

A report on updating the vehicle noise policy report is expected to return to council’s public works committee in May 2022.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyane_pursaga