One of my best friends lives in Ladner. She had foot surgery that kept her immobile for months, and that meant she was forced to spend a lot of time at home listening.
Like Jimmy Stewart's character in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, her senses where heightened and she became acutely perceptive to her surroundings. She may not have witnessed a murder but she started to hear an aberration, the constant roar coming from the sky.
She began documenting plane traffic above her house and on a Saturday morning she recorded planes flying overhead at 9:30, 9:50, 10:00, 10:04, 10:11, 10:21, 10:24, 10:29, 10:31, 10:34, 10:36 and 10:38. That's 12 planes in 68 minutes.
Try enjoying a conversation with your husband over morning coffee, or hosting an outdoor barbecue, with air traffic like that.
There's a 20-year master plan for YVR in the works and it includes a huge increase in airplane traffic over South Delta. In 2016, YVR had 22 million passengers; in just 20 years that will rise to 35 million per year. Peak daily aircraft movements over Delta are due to rise by 438 per cent over the next 30 years.
That sounds like an onslaught from above. Call me a NIMBY, but those levels are unacceptable.
The air is not the only place we are going to face increased environmental pollution. Ladner residents in proximity to the river already experience air pollution caused by the over one million cars that idle every year trying to merge into the George Massey Tunnel. The next onslaught will be construction noise and dust from the new bridge project. Presently 86,000 cars drive the tunnel daily, and that number will rise once the bridge is built and our population swells.
Now that summer is here we like to enjoy a peaceful dinner on our deck, but it comes with the sound of trains rumbling down the tracks near our Beach Grove neighbourhood. The train engines braking and accelerating can be heard in so many of our neighbourhoods and it's only going to get worse.
Train volumes are projected to double once Terminal 2 is built. By 2031 the Roberts Bank corridor will have 29 trains moving a day with public crossing times of 191 minutes a day. That's a whole lot of increased whistle time.
Noise pollution is not to be taken lightly as it contributes to high blood pressure, heart disease, hypertension and sleep problems, but most concerning is how it affects our psychological health. Solutions such as quieter jet engines, rerouting flight paths, implementing roadway noise barriers and designing noise reducing engines are essential. Our municipal leaders have the power to implement bylaws that protect us from noise pollution, and they must be aggressive.
Like Hitchcock's character Jeff Jeffries, take the time to watch and listen to your environment this summer. What you hear may affect you more than you realize. It could be a thriller in the making.
Ingrid Abbott is a freelance writer and broadcaster who finds her local bottle depot the noisiest place on Earth.
