Calgary wants to tackle noisy vehicle concerns but not until next year

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott said many Calgarians will be disappointed with the timeline, but the proposal will require a lot of work before a pilot project can begin.

It’s a familiar summer sound in Calgary — loud cars and motorcycles revving their engines — but the city’s plan to address the noise isn’t expected until sometime next year.

The City of Calgary said it’s received 1,543 complaints on the 311 line about excessive vehicle noise across the city over the last five years.

According to city data, there were complaints coming from every ward in the city, but none more than the inner city areas in Wards 7 and 8.

One of the notoriously noisy areas is along 17 Avenue, where Kelly Mandeville has lived for nearly 14 years.

“It’s widely adopted that it’s too noisy here between April and September,” she said. “All day and all night you can hear loud motorcycles and loud mufflers from cars.  I’ve seen accidents, I’ve watched people lose control of their motorcycles.”

However, not everyone who spoke with Global News said they were frustrated with the summer street sounds in the Beltline.

“I just love cars, loud cars, fast cars, it’s awesome,” Harry Anstead told Global News. “I love walking down here and seeing Ferraris, Lambos, it’s awesome.”

On Wednesday, city administration brought forward a work plan and pilot project proposal aimed at improving enforcement of excessively loud vehicles to the city’s Community Development Committee.