More complaints of loud vehicles on 17 Ave SW: police

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Some Calgarians are having a hard time getting to sleep this summer, and not just because of the warm weather.

Calgary police said they have been getting more complaints about loud vehicles this summer, especially near 17 Ave. SW.

“It’s definitely an area that gets busier with people out and about and everybody wants to show their cool vehicles. It definitely becomes busy,” said Acting Sgt. Chris Agren who said the pandemic could be partially to blame.

“This year it does actually seem to be a little more prevalent in that I think there’s a lot more of us in the city this year, rather than being out and about or on holidays or away from Calgary.”

While officers do their best to respond to complaints, Agren added actually enforcing the noise bylaw is difficult.

“Whenever you are dealing with noise, it is subjective to the person enforcing it. If I was out and about on 17 Avenue and I heard something that I would consider to be noisy, the evidence I would need to provide is how noisy it was, why was it noisy and who was it affecting.”

Agren said police try to take the good neighbour approach and have a conversation with the driver to ask them to keep the noise to a minimum.

He said officers can also check if a vehicle is in violation of the Traffic Safety Act.

“Perhaps there’s something that’s been altered or changed. We do have ways in that act to ask people to change it or put it back to the way it was from the manufacturer.”

Agren added often what is considered a “loud vehicle” is subjective and the sound can be amplified by other factors, like tall buildings downtown.

He said it’s up to Calgarians to be respectful of their neighbours when driving and to think twice before revving an engine or squealing your tires.