Every once in a while two stories find an interesting juxtaposition in the news.
We have a couple of those right now in Edmonton, and they both have to do with loud noise.
Some comes from motorbikes and cars, some from drums and guitars.
First, we’ve got the newly installed vehicle sound level meter downtown, where people in high rises get awakened in the wee hours by a muffler that’s had surgery to get noticed.
Get caught with a loud tailpipe — over a hundred decibels — and you could be paying a $250 fine.
This meter is not having the desired effect, since apartment dwellers tell me drivers deliberately roar around it in the night, or sit there, revving their engines, to see how high they can make the reading go.
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Then, we’ve got the people living in the Northlands area, who last weekend were treated to the Boodang Music Festival.
They didn’t even need a ticket.
One lady says the music was so loud her house was vibrating and if you believe social media, they could hear the music or the noise, 20 blocks away.
Festivals should also have a decibel law.
Like cars, they should not be allowed to break the city’s sound barrier.
Let me know what you think about that.
Bob Layton is the news manager of the Corus Edmonton group of radio stations.
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