Councillor seeks car alarm ban: It will make a much, much better city,' Tim Stevenson argues
Vancouver Sun
By Petti Fong and David Hogben

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Councillor Tim Stevenson wants us all to sleep through the night again by making Vancouver the first city in Canada to ban car alarms.

"It will make it a much, much better city," Stevenson said. "The noise just reverberates and bounces back and forth, waking people up sometimes two or three times a night. For some, it's pretty tough to go back to sleep afterwards."

A good night's sleep is a luxury that people, especially those living in the West End and other areas downtown, haven't experienced in years, according to Stevenson, who has been championing the issue of noise reduction, from motorcycles to leaf blowers since he was an MLA for the NDP in the 1990s.

On Tuesday, Stevenson asked staff to prepare a report about whether banning car alarms makes sense.

He hopes city staff will find results similar to that found by a lobby group in New York City, which is pressing city council there to ban car alarms. The group, Transportation Alternatives, claims car alarms cost New Yorkers between $400 and $500 million per year in public health costs, lost productivity, decreased property value and diminished quality of life.

Banning alarms would put the police department in a quandary, Vancouver police Inspector Al Boyd said Wednesday.

Resolving the issue involves a balancing act between protecting people's property and preventing persistent noise, he said.

"As you know the Vancouver police for several years have been asking individuals to harden their vehicles as targets for car thieves and as you know we have a huge amount of break-ins to vehicles," he said.

Boyd said auto alarms save people money by preventing break-ins and preventing increases in automobile insurance rates.

He said the vehicles are towed if police cannot locate the registered owner of a vehicle with a persistent alarm or if the alarm sounds three times in 24 hours

It is rare that police resort to having cars with alarm problems towed.

Although Boyd said police are content with the current policy, they are prepared to work with council on possible solutions to the noise problems.

"I understand the dilemma with residents, particularly in the West End, who are awoken by these alarms. It's got to be very annoying."

ICBC's position is that car owners should get as many theft deterrent devices as they can for their vehicles. There are basically three types of auto theft deterrents: a steering wheel bar, an engine immobilizer and alarms.

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