Sunday September 3, 2006
Unnecessary noise an affront to innocent victims
The silly season is over for another year. Summer\’s gone; fall is coming, and with it, the blessed sounds of silence.
What is it about summer that encourages noise? The more noise, it seems, the more people convince themselves that they must be having fun.
At night, before bed, Joan and I usually go out and soak a while in our hot tub and watch the canopy of stars slowly rotate overhead.
Most of the year, we can do so in silence broken only by the hoot of an owl on the hillside above us, or a dog barking several blocks away.
But during the summer months, the decibel levels go up markedly. Maybe there\’s a party at the community hall. The music itself gets filtered by the trees, but the inevitable “boom-thunk” bass accompaniment penetrates farther.
Car exhausts rumble on the road below.
Most summer nights, we can hear people roistering on the beach or in the park below us. Their squealing and hollering suggests that it\’s mostly young people. The litter next morning suggests that they drink a lot of beer. Mostly Budweiser – the reason I now refuse to buy that brand.
Motorized boom boxes
Traffic, of course, increases exponentially during the summer months. So does a lack of consideration for other highway users. Cars have their windows rolled down, ensuring that everyone else on the road can\’t help sampling the owner\’s musical preferences.
Andre\’s Car Audio actually sponsors an annual competition for loud audio systems. Last weekend, they held the fifth annual Okanagan Thunder event.
Some of these sound systems have so much power that when they\’re cranked up to full volume with the windows closed, owners have to lean on the windshields to keep them from popping out.
Competitors typically spend $30,000 on equipment – sometimes more than the car itself is worth.
Normal voice conversation registers about 70 decibels (usually abbreviated to 70 dBA). Every three decibel increase doubles the volume. Last year\’s winner of the Andre\’s competition generated at 152 dBA. Technically, that\’s 10,000 times louder than a pneumatic jackhammer, at 110 dBA. A circular saw screams at about 90 dBA; a walk in the woods is about 35 dBA.
Labour laws require anyone exposed to more than 85 dBA to wear ear protection. But I could find nothing in the provincial Motor Vehicle Act that limits noise levels of car audio systems.
I was told that it was illegal for me drive my convertible while listening to music through earphones, because the earphones might mask traffic sounds.
Yet when any audio-extremist comes anywhere near me on the highway, I can\’t hear any other traffic sounds. Even the diesel dump truck snorting up my exhaust pipe is drowned out.
And this is supposed to be fun-fun-fun?
In-your-face boaters
Fortunately, I have the option of not attending Andre\’s Okanagan Thunder event. I don\’t have that freedom when loud boats romp up and down the lake.
Previous summers, the problem has been those waterborne buzzbombs, personal watercraft. This summer, it\’s been a small group afflicted with too much money and too little courtesy. They own “Cigarette” boats, designed for high speed open-ocean racing. These boats pack more horsepower than three SUVs put together; the manufacturers admit – even brag – that their only purpose is speed.
One lakeside resident estimated their speeds at close to 100 mph. It has to be an estimate, because no other boat is capable of keeping up with them on the water. And no one would dare drive that fast along any road paralleling the water, on land, to clock their speed.
Think about it for a moment. Not 100 km/hr, but 100 miles per hour. Equivalent to 160 km/hr. On the water. In a vehicle with no brakes. Dangerous enough during daylight hours. But some of these boats have roared by at 3:00 a.m. In darkness. Without lights.
And with restricted visibility, because the driver sits way back at the stern with some 30 feet of fibreglass hull out in front. It\’s comparable to manoeuvring a semi-trailer rig at twice the legal speed limit on most Canadian highways while perched on the hindmost axle.
To add insult to potential injury, the owners of these boats choose to operate them with unmuffled exhausts. I say “choose to,” because at least one of these boats has a cutout switch.
A cutout switch enables out-and-out racers to gain a few horsepower by diverting exhaust directly into the air, instead of venting it underwater.
Cutout switches are illegal on B.C. roads. But apparently no one can, or will, police them on the water.
The owners of these boats choose to flip that switch. I have heard the transition from dignified burble to offensive blaaaattttttt!
They roar up and down flaunting their message of raw power. It resonates between the steep slopes that line both sides of the lake, the way truck exhausts resonate in the concrete canyons of downtown Toronto or Montreal.
They sound like a fire-fighting water bomber coming by at rooftop level.
And it\’s a deliberate in-your-face affront.
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If you want to order my books, you can call 1-800-663-2775 in Canada, 1-800-328-0200 in the U.S., or order them on-line at the Wood Lake Books website.
For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to [email protected].
It\’s also worth pursuing Richard Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
The City of Vancouver\’s Noise Abatement task force found that urban noise levels were doubling every six years. Already, young people are suffering hearing loss from excessively loud earphones.
But our regulatory authorities continue to treat noise pollution merely as an inconvenience, rather than a threat to health and well-being. That\’s no longer sufficient.
My wife and I spent 25 years living near the junction of two major freeways in Toronto, and on the flight path from Toronto International Airport to Montreal. We were constantly assaulted by extraneous noise. We chose to live here in Okanagan Centre in part because we valued the peace and quiet.
But there are times during the summer months when the noise level off the lake is worse than anything we experienced in Toronto.
Thank God for fall.
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Copyright © 2006 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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