Whether it’s trucks, tailpipes or tailgaters, the City of North Vancouver is looking to dampen the urban cacophony.
Coun. Tony Valente brought forward a motion to review the noise bylaw Monday night after months of meetings with staff, and community members, and reading academic papers on how the urban soundscape impacts public health.
“The growing body of evidence suggests exposure to excessive environmental noise does not only impact quality of life and cause hearing loss, but has other health impacts that could include cardiovascular effects, cognitive impacts, sleep disturbance and mental health effects,” he said, quoting from a research study.
Noise complaints are notoriously difficult to enforce because the offending sound must be accurately measured and sustained for a period of time, and often happens late in the night. But with most people’s smartphones being capable of measuring decibels, it may be time to update the bylaw, which hasn’t had a rewrite since 2011, Valente argued. “One of the big issues with measuring noises is finding a consistent way of measuring so you can actually apply some sort of rule. I think the technology is certainly getting now in terms of enabling this,” he said.
Support for Valente’s motion was unanimous.
Mayor Linda Buchanan said some noise can’t be avoided in a bustling city, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t areas to be improved upon.
“Cities are, by nature, a bit noisy at times. We are a port city. We have industrial noise. We know that as well. But are there ways and means we can mitigate a lot of these noises when we know where the sources are?” she said.
Researchers found almost 60 per cent of Toronto’s noise can be attributed to traffic. One possible mitigation could be requiring deliveries by smaller trucks wherever possible, Buchanan said. “I’m happy to have that come forward and have staff come back and let us know.”
