The Noise Mitigation Policy for Urban Environments

In urban areas, noise contributes to reducing the quality of life. Noise represents a considerable nuisance that can have negative effects on the health of the population, disturbing sleep and increasing stress. Two major categories of constant or intermittent noise require attention: mobile noise (street and air traffic) and stationary noise (from industrial, commercial or residential sources).

The City plans to define appropriate measures as part of a noise mitigation policy, particularly in densely populated areas and close to schools and hospitals.

Some frequently-applied measures are:

employing adequate insulation and window design;

favouring the reduction of speed limits with suitable signage, reduce road width, implement high-quality landscaping and modified road surfaces;

creating a buffer zone (trees or noise-abatement berms);

setting up noise screens or noise-abatement walls;

incorporating noise-absorbing screens into the retaining walls of thoroughfares or expressways built below ground level;

determining proper building orientation and room layout in relation to sources of noise.

The City plans to develop this policy in cooperation with the Ministère des Transports du Québec and various freight transportation companies, including Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, the Port of Montréal and Montréal – Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

The Noise Mitigation Policy for Urban Environments

Implementation measures

Develop and implement the Politique d’atténuation du bruit en milieu urbain (Noise Mitigation Policy for Urban Environments).
Set up a coordinating committee with the Ministère des Transports du Québec and the various organizations and firms involved in freight transportation, including Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, the Port of Montréal and Montréal – Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport , in order to limit noise pollution in residential areas.
Mitigate noise along expressways and rail corridors in residential areas, in partnership with the Ministère des Transports and railway companies.
Mitigate nuisances related to noise, odours and dust around waste management infrastructure and around snow disposal chutes and sites.
Concentrate traffic on main arteries and establish measures to reduce traffic in residential areas.
Require developers who undertake residential projects adjacent to known nuisances to take appropriate mitigating measures at their own expense, in accordance with the nature and intensity of the nuisance.
Locate waste management and snow disposal sites, along with businesses that are likely to generate environmental nuisances, in industrial employment areas.
Establish a program that encourages firms whose operations produce odour nuisances to modify their manufacturing processes in order to bring their air emissions into compliance with existing environmental standards.
Establish a program that provides relocation assistance to firms whose operations create serious nuisances for living environments.

The implementation of traffic calming measures

The increased use of local streets and high speeds by some drivers jeopardize security, well-being and peacefulness in residential areas. Traffic calming measures will limit these detrimental effects. Their implementation is the responsibility of each borough.

Directing traffic from side streets to the main arteries will reduce the volume of vehicles on residential streets. In addition, traffic calming measures include:

installing appropriate signage;
reducing road widths and widening sidewalks;
landscaping roads or sidewalks;
modifying road surfaces;
eliminating certain one-way streets; and
modifying the direction of traffic on certain streets in order to break up continuous traffic flow.