Toronto woman takes excessive vehicle noise issues to city hall

It’s been two years since Ingrid Buday went to sleep comfortably in her home. The Toronto woman says her restful night of sleep is being taken away by loud motorcycles, exhausts backfiring and cars racing their engines.

It led her to buy an $8,000 environmental noise meter to track what was happening at night. For a year she has perched with a noise meter on her patio and tracked changes in sound coming from the roadways. She showed Global News her findings and presented it to the city of Toronto’s economic and community development committee.

The Toronto woman knows that living in a city has a certain volume level, especially near the Gardiner Expressway, but said the usual pace of traffic averages out to 70 decibels. But, the roaring of engines and exhausts has made noise peak at 120 decibels.

“I love where I live, but the only thing that would drive me away is the noise,” she said.

The 70 decibels of sound is comparable to a washing machine or dishwasher, and the noise coming to her condo patio is lower than expected (80-85 decibels) according to a report from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S.

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At 120 decibels, things can get stark, with the CDC writing that it can cause “pain and ear injury” and is the equivalent of “standing beside or near sirens”. While her hearing hasn’t been impaired, Buday said that she’s dealt with a myriad of health problems from her erratic sleep schedule.

“(It’s) negatively impacting my health. It’s caused me annoyance, frustration, lack of sleep, depression, anxiety.”

The challenge to get this issue addressed is what has led Buday to city hall. She first complained nearly a year ago to 3-1-1 and wrote emails to the city of Toronto.

“The system didn’t work,” she said.

Enforcement is fairly limited in its capacity. While Toronto Police Service said they can issue tickets up to $110, which can help dissuade drivers, they can’t reduce car noise permanently.

“From where I’m standing there is no law, or a way to truly end the situation or a law that is enforceable or reasonable to solve the issue forever,” said Constable Sean Shapiro of the Toronto Police Service.

It’s not just a problem affecting Buday. In an interview with Global News Morning, city councillor Ana Bailao says the problem is growing across the city.

“We’ve hoped there were good people and it hasn’t worked, especially during the pandemic, you can speak to any city councillor in the city of Toronto and they can tell you the issue has escalated over the past few years,” she said.

The outgoing city councillor said that police enforcement isn’t necessarily the best use of resources or a way to solve the issue.

“If we think that we’re going to deal with this just by having cops all over the place, we’re not going to be successful,” she said.

Bailao, who has previously brought this attention to the city staff’s attention said that there are better ways to address the issue. She mentioned that road design, which would take years is a good measure, while also looking at incorporating technology similar to speeding cameras to penalize offenders.

The city’s economic and community development committee was presented with motions that they intend to bring forward to the council, including increasing fines for excessive vehicle noise, demerit points, suspending licenses of auto body facilities that modify exhausts illegally and looking into technological measures to curb excessive sound.

“We’re heading in the right direction, but I’m not sure that the political will is there to do what needs to be done,” Buday said.

City Council is expected to be presented the measures on July 19 and 20.