Edmonton city councillors want automated tools for noisy vehicle crackdown

Loud vehicles and street racing are still major problems in Edmonton, some city councillors are saying.

And they’re fed up.

“It’s a really big issue,” said Coun. Michael Janz. “It’s a deadly issue and whatever we can do as a city to crack down on it, including new technology, is long overdue.”

The Whyte Avenue-area city councillor wants to spend $50,000 for a vehicle noise pilot project – and he’s not alone.

“We’re at a point now, especially with the provincial government’s removal of (most) photo radar (sites), we’re seeing more deadly streets, we’re seeing more unsafe driving behaviour,” Coun. Andrew Knack said. “We clearly need to take a more active role.”

Anyone caught with a loud vehicle in Edmonton can be fined $1,000, and it doubles each time. Edmonton police typically write about 400 of those tickets each year.

But some say those fines are still not deterring nuisance drivers.

“It can get very annoying, like, when my dogs are even scared of the noise,” said Whyte Avenue resident Tina Barretto.

“I don’t know why it is a competition of who was the loudest (vehicle),” added Danik Blanchet. “I mean, just get your car normal, don’t boost your car.”

Edmonton has been down the road of automated noise enforcement before – with little success.

Some even made a game of revving their engines near vehicle noise display boards, that the city installed in 2018 and later removed.

But Janz believes it will be better this time, because the tools are much improved.

“This is the same technology that they used in war to determine where sniper bullets were coming from,” he said. “It’s been deployed in New York, in London, and other cities around the world.”

The provincial government says municipalities are free to explore and implement new technologies to enforce their bylaws, but they must get Alberta’s approval before enforcing provincial laws or regulations.

Janz is hoping this government or the next one will eventually allow that.

Until then, he sees value in testing new tools and gathering data, even suggesting police contact loud drivers to encourage them to tone it down.

Council still needs to debate and vote on the pilot project.