Skip to content

Is this Burnaby’s loudest stretch of road? One resident thinks so

Mike Bird has had it with people – mostly male drivers - compensating for their, ahem, shortcomings with loud mufflers and revving engines. Bird lives at Maywood Street and Willingdon Avenue.
maywood street
Maywood Street and Willingdon Avenue is plagued by loud vehicles, says area resident Mike Bird. Google Street View

Mike Bird has had it with people – mostly male drivers - compensating for their, ahem, shortcomings with loud mufflers and revving engines.

Bird lives at Maywood Street and Willingdon Avenue. He says his neighbourhood - Willingdon stretching from Imperial and Central Boulevard – is a disaster when it comes to noise from drivers.

“(This) is where many of these culprits are speeding and revving their engines, creating very loud/disturbing muffler noise,” Bird says. “These mufflers can scare other motorists and distract them from their driving. This muffler noise also scares pedestrians who are waiting to cross the street and could possibly make them step off the curb into traffic. This has been going on for too long. This is noise pollution.”

Bird wants the City of Burnaby to enact a bylaw like the one coming to Toronto soon that will penalize some cars and motorcycles for being too loud.

 

Toronto Mayor John Tory described the problems causes by some vehicle owners in a tweet on Monday: “Loud and excessive noise can be characterized as noise that is a nuisance to the general public, taking into consideration the nature, location, time and proximity of the source to residents and members of the public.”

Tory then tweeted that some enforceable nuisances include vehicle horns and alarms, loud mufflers and exhausts, and engine revving and squealing tires.

Bird has written to Mayor Mike Hurley about this issue, and says he’s been in contact with Burnaby RCMP over the years.

I agree that noise is a big issue when you live in a city, but I’m not sure how much traction this issue will get in a city in which the housing crisis is far more important.

Perhaps Toronto’s bylaw will set a precedent for other urban centres.

I do agree with Bird when he wonders why some drivers seem to like loud vehicles.

“I cannot understand why the owners of these cars seem to get so much pleasure from their muffler noise,” Bird says. “The only thing it seems to do is to stroke the mostly male ego.”

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.