Listening harder for noise, especially from automobiles, is another task for Barrie police.
City councillors gave initial approval Monday night to a motion asking city police to review opportunities to enhance their response to noise that is disruptive to others, especially motor-vehicle noise, and provide a memorandum outlining the results of the review.
Barrie police conducted a blitz last summer on vehicles making unnecessary noise on city streets, along with stop signs and speeding infractions, twice a week during a four-week period, called Project Wake Up Call. The traffic unit charged 25 people with having an improper muffler.
Councillors have also asked for all of the police data from Project Wake Up Call.
“I’m getting lots of questions from residents around… intersections for speeding,” said Coun. Ann-Marie Kungl. “If we could receive information around areas that blitz targeted.”
City council will consider final approval of this motion at its Nov. 8 meeting.
The Ward 3 councillor also said she’s received complaints about the intersections of Livingstone and St. Vincent streets, as well as Cundles Road and JC Massie Way.
Kungl wants to know how Citizens on Patrol are being deployed in police efforts to battle unwanted noise and speeding as well.
She was also told that while there is no council direction to proceed with red light cameras, city staff do have direction concerning community safety zone cameras, and it’s subject to negotiations with the City of Toronto and the province.
Barrie’s noise bylaw already restricts noise from vehicles, but bylaw officers aren't able to stop moving vehicles under provincial law.
Police say the noise these vehicles generate is due to modifications made by owners, such as removing a muffler and running with a straight pipe.
Motorists can be charged under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) with unnecessary noise or having an improper (or no) muffler, according to city police. They have 15 days to make a decision on how to deal with the ticket — and no opportunity to get the vehicle repaired. The ticket commands them to either plead guilty, and pay a $110 fine, plead not guilty or guilty with an explanation, or have a trial, where a justice of the peace will rule and set a fine, if necessary.
Repeat offenders can be dealt with through a vehicle report notice.
HTA offences are not moving violations, like rolling through a stop sign or traffic light, not wearing your seatbelt or speeding. There are no points assessed to the driver’s licence.
Police have said there’s no one particular area of Barrie with noisy cars and trucks, although Lakeshore Drive is high on the list.
Openings on the water, the height of the buildings, the echoing factor and a stretch of roadway that is broken up with a number of traffic signals, offering plenty of opportunities to accelerate from a stopped position, are factors there
Last summer, city council instructed staff to investigate reducing the speed limit to 30 kilometres an hour on Lakeshore Drive, between Simcoe and Tiffin streets, or 20 km/h slower than the current speed limit of 50 km/h.
Barrie police say noisy vehicles aren’t just a problem in Barrie or even Ontario, but in communities right across Canada, and involve all makes and models of vehicles, older and newer ones.
