Noisy Vehicles

In previous terms, the issue of noisy vehicles came up a few times within the ward I represented but it was primarily a major issue that was raised by former Councillors Ben Henderson and Scott McKeen. The boundaries of the wards they represented included major roads like Groat Road, Jasper Avenue, and Whyte Avenue. These are roads that would often generate many excessive noise complaints from residents close by.

With the ward boundary change in October 2021, I now represent 4 communities that have been dealing with excessive noise for quite some time: Grovenor, McQueen, Glenora, and North Glenora. I want to take some time and share some of the work that has previously happened and the latest work that was approved by council in the last few months.

At different times, council approved different strategies to try and tackle this issue. We tried using noise readers. There were two issues with that approach:

1. The technology at the time was not very refined so it wasn’t great at reading noise levels properly. In particular, the technology available when we first started looking at this wasn’t really made to read noise for vehicles other than motorcycles.

2. Since the technology was not great, tickets that were issued did not hold up in the courts. Therefore, people breaking the rules weren’t guaranteed to get fines which meant that the problem wasn’t being properly addressed.

While there were challenges, there was some limited success. Project TENSOR was created so that Edmonton Police Service (EPS) could take a more focused approach in collaboration with City Bylaw officers. In 2021, there were about 7 times more tickets issued than ever before thanks to more regular enforcement. These tickets through Project TENSOR do hold up in the courts.

One challenge with Project TENSOR is that it requires staff. Police and Bylaw Officers didn’t have the ability to do enforcement every day/night so there were still many times where excessively noisy vehicles were not being held accountable for negatively impacting residents in many communities.

Over the last few years, the technology for automated noise enforcement has been improving. It looks like some of the equipment available now would allow for automated enforcement of noisy vehicles. But before we can use automated noise enforcement, the provincial government needs to make a change to allow municipalities in Alberta to use that kind of technology.

In August, council unanimously approved the following motion:

“1) That Administration provide a report to Committee outlining options and an implementation plan for enhanced vehicle noise enforcement, including fine amounts, budget requirements, potential funding options, and a plan for enhanced deployment starting in Q2 2023.

2) That Community and Public Services Committee recommend to City Council:

1. That the Mayor, on behalf of City Council, advocate to the Government of Alberta to recognize automated roadway noise enforcement tools and allow municipalities to use them for noise infractions.

2. That the Mayor, on behalf of City Council, advocate to the Government of Alberta for the Traffic Safety Act to be amended to allow municipalities to ban vehicle modifications that cause excessive roadway noise and explore tools to restrict the sale of said products.

3. That the Mayor, on behalf of City Council, advocate to the Government of Alberta for the Traffic Safety Act to be amended to allow peace officers to seize vehicles driving in excess of 50km/h over the speed limit.”

For the first point, I believe the current fine amount is far too low. It’s not serving as a deterrent for those who will knowingly spend thousands of dollars modifying their vehicle to create excessive noise and then drive by residential areas instead of the dedicated race tracks where responsible vehicle owners will take their vehicles to. The fine amount should escalate based on the number of infractions. If someone is regularly breaking the law and disturbing people in residential communities, the fine amount should increase based on the number of infractions.

One other item in the first point to flag is enhanced deployment. Early in my first term, there was an issue with heavy vehicles traveling on City roads that aren’t meant for those larger vehicles. I brought this forward to council and we approved a team dedicated to enforcement of heavy vehicles. This team did not require separate operational funding as the fines issued covered the cost of the team. I think we should consider applying a similar model for this issue. With a very challenging budget coming up later this year, if there are ways to get more service without increasing our budget, we need to move those ideas forward.

For the second point, as you can see, being able to use automated noise enforcement requires a change from the provincial government. I’m not sure if they will allow municipalities in Alberta to use those tools but if they do, a new dedicated enforcement team would be able to better hold people accountable.

Even without the support in point 2, I think the changes in point 1 could make a meaningful change in the quality of life of residents living beside major roads. I’ve heard from many residents about how this impacts their families or themselves. I’ve heard these vehicles close to my home in the early hours as well and I understand that it can be hard to sleep in the spring, summer, and fall. It can even be hard when keeping your windows closed which is why we have to take this issue seriously.

I want to thank Councillor Michael Janz who brought forward this motion and hopefully later this year, council will approve a new dedicated team to help provide relief to Edmontonians.