Riverside Drive residents upset over noisy revelers revving engines

Windsor police have announced a crackdown on excessive noise from cars, motorcycles and other vehicles. But residents of a downtown condo say authorities aren't responding to their complaints about a loud group of car owners that meet in the Dieppe Gardens parking lot.

Police running anti-noise pollution campaign aimed at loud cars and motorcycles

Dale Molnar CBC News Posted: May 16, 2023 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: May 16, 2023

Joan Charette stands on her balcony which overlooks a parking lot on the riverfront where she says drivers of cars with loud engines keep her and her husband up at night. (Dale Molnar/CBC)

Joan Charette and her husband sometimes have to pause what they're watching on TV because of excessive noise coming from revving engines.

Charette says it's from a group congregating in the east parking lot of Dieppe Gardens.

She lives on the eighth floor of the Le Goyeau condominiums. The parking lot is just below their balcony.

"It's beyond disruptive," said Charette, who is the president of the condo association board of directors.

"It's causing lack of sleep. It's lack of enjoyment quality of life and you know it's a very sad situation."

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"It's just so loud. You go to bed and it wakes you up in the middle of the night and you can't fall back to sleep again. It's just very irritating," said another resident, Mary Caruana.

Windsor police have announced they are cracking down on excessive motorist noise, such as loud mufflers and excessively loud stereos.

"To make it a better community, we make sure we enhance and step up our patrols for the noise to make the citizens of Windsor a happier place to live and reside," said Const. Adam Young of the Windsor Police Service.

But Charette says they've called police a number of times about the noise on the riverfront parking lot and they haven't responded.

Cars making noise on Windsor's riverfront

1 year ago

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This video provided by Joan Charette illustrates the noise she and other neighbours are dealing with.

CBC News has yet to hear back from police after reaching to them for comment on the Le Goyeau complaints.

Meanwhile, police say they don't use a decibel reader to determine whether a motorist is contravening the Highway Traffic Act (HTA). They use their discretion.

But according to paralegal Walter Martin, the HTAdoesn't set out decibel guidelines.

Martin says he'dlike to see noise law contravention adjudicated objectively with decibel readers rather than subjectively.

Walter Martin, owner of Off the Hook Paralegal. (Dale Molnar/CBC)

"If the police department wants to do this then they should be getting decibel level meters," said Martin.

Police say they will continue their stepped up enforcement until September.

The cost of a ticket is $110.

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