City wants researchers to study Calgarians’ exposure to noise

The City of Calgary is recommending city noise data be made available to “interested researchers” to study the impact of noise on Calgarians.

It follows a motion from Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott calling on the administration to bring forward a “noise policy vision,” with a review of existing city rules around noise and comparisons to health guidelines and practices in other jurisdictions.

According to a city report, exposure to traffic noise above 53 decibels throughout the day and 45 decibels at night “increases the risk of adverse health effects.”

However, city officials told Calgary’s Community Development Committee Wednesday that the administration doesn’t have the capacity or resources to take on such a study.

“We have so much stuff on our plate right now that admittedly the teams just said this is innovative work but it’s not a city priority,” Walcott told reporters following the meeting. “Maybe we come back to this at a later time.”

A city report said developing the capacity to take on such a study would “require several years of effort and many hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenditure.”

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That work would’ve included a noise mapping scoping report, a scoping report on a noise strategy, as well as a scoping report on a “Soundscape Assessment Pilot Project” for $650,000, committee documents show.

Instead, the administration wants to provide data the city has collected on noise to researchers to look further into the issue.

“This might be a partnership that we have with somebody who is writing a PhD, maybe who’s exploring a concept and has federal grant funding to go through with this work,” Walcott said.

“If they’re paying attention and want to do that work, they at least know we’re a willing partner already.”

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Work is ongoing on a noise monitoring pilot project involving city bylaw officers and the creation of a Traffic Safety Team to address vehicle noise.

The move comes after city council heard of several issues with vehicle noise, especially along areas like 17 Avenue in the Beltline.

“Every night I hear the vroom vroom until 2 o’clock in the morning and I work so that’s a problem for me,” Beltline resident Diane Taes told Global News. “On a scale from one to 10, I’d say 12.”

According to city officials, bylaw officers have been training with Calgary Police on traffic enforcement after the hiring of 2 sergeants and 8 peace officers.

Ryan Pleckaitis, City of Calgary Community Standards chief, said the next step is to install 40 monitoring devices to study noise levels across the city starting next month.

“Collecting that data and being able to visualize it will show during certain times of the week, this area is more problematic than others, and that will help with deployment strategy when we’re ready to go,” Pleckaitis told Global News.

The launch of the traffic safety team is scheduled for later this year, and its initial focus will be on school zone safety, but will shift to vehicle noise enforcement in the spring after baseline noise data is collected.

But some Calgarians hope the enforcement and monitoring isn’t too overreaching.

“I’m not out revving my engine after 10 o’clock so I think that as long as you’re within a reasonable timeframe, I don’t think it needs to be monitored,” said Nadean Wutzke, who owns a vintage car.

As for an overarching noise strategy in Calgary, city councillors said it’s not likely to come to fruition anytime soon.