Saint-Laurent cracking down on excessively loud vehicles

Montreal's Saint-Laurent borough has adopted bylaw changes to make it easier for police to ticket excessively loud vehicles

When people think of noise in the Saint-Laurent borough, it’s airplane traffic that often comes to mind.

The borough says, while flight paths are out of its hands, it also gets many complaints about loud car noises at council meetings, and that’s something it’s going to try to mitigate through bylaw changes that were adopted on Tuesday.

“When we went out in the election campaign, we did hear loud and clear from citizens that noise was an issue,” said borough mayor Alan DeSousa.

“Now, clearly, we don’t control the planes nor the trains; those are federal jurisdiction, but we can do this.”

The by-law change addresses vehicles that are excessively noisy due to things like modifications, faulty mufflers, screeching tires, revving engines, and blaring music.

The aim is to make it easier for police officers to ticket drivers for their noisy cars, without having to measure the noise levels.

“Under our current bylaws, you need a sound meter to be able to establish the decibel levels before you can actually give a ticket, explained DeSousa.

“So what we did was we moved these types of noises into our nuisance bylaw, which does not require a sound meter.”

Similar bylaw changes have been made in other boroughs, including Verdun.

Saint-Laurent residents CTV spoke to say the sounds of revving engines and cars racing along stretches of boulevards such as Henri-Bourassa sometimes wake them up in the middle of the night.

Under the new regulations, emergency vehicles are exempt.

Drivers pulled over for excessive noise could face fines ranging from $100 to $2,000.

“Trying to keep a community that is quiet and peaceful is an ongoing struggle,” said DeSousa. “I think every little bit helps and every little bit counts.”