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I lived in the42 for years, and even with Bridgeport rush hour traffic, as well as fire trucks using it as their main access to many calls, I can say it was incredibly peaceful.
On the other hand, I live in Kaufman now, and indeed at night if the fan is off, I can hear street level conversations. When they get bad, I'll turn the fan on to drown it out. I am curious to see how LRT noises affect me.
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Yep. Hearing the conversations of those in Phase II (we were in Phase I) or on the balconies below us was what prompted is to move. The hallways were awful, too - but that was people there seemed to have little concept that even quiet conversations traveled down the concrete halls, and through the paper-thin doors into every unit.
The folks on the ground floor facing King and Francis are going to be living a nightmare. The rumbling alone from train movements is going to be enough to make anyone want to move.
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I think a lot of that could be improved, if the condo corporation is willing (and able) to spend money improving windows. Based on what the two of you are saying, it sure looks like "as cheap as possible" was the original construction goal.
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I put weather stripping around my door, but I'm also at the end of a hall. If my neighbour slams his kitchen cupboards closed with force, I hear them. Even a friend in Arrow lofts recently agreed to a condo offer to better soundproof walls (though they only did some, which seems doubly wasteful to me).
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09-02-2016, 02:02 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-02-2016, 02:05 PM by danbrotherston.)
(09-02-2016, 12:07 PM)Markster Wrote: The anomaly aside, it is going to be a long-term noise pollution issue.
If trains are coming every 10 minutes each direction, then that means bells ringing every 5 minutes, all day long.
"day" being the operative word there. Even the family pointed out the most problematic part of this was that it was overnight.
Also, the clanging is far more noticeable when there is no train. I usually can't even hear the clanging on the one my street over the train--admittedly, the trains going past my house are somewhat longer.
That being said, I think the increase in train traffic will be an increase in noise pollution for some, while for others it will be a decrease (I would imagine VMT is the largest source of noise in our city). I don't want to say it isn't an issue, but we should keep some perspective.
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Not attacking but I'm wondering how this is different from living under a flight path and then complaining about aircraft noise?
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09-02-2016, 02:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-02-2016, 02:30 PM by Canard.)
Not at all different Joe - valid point totally and very much agreed.
The folks who live next to Canada's Wonderland kicked up a huge stink when they built Behemoth (and later, Leviathan) at the perimeter of the park. Yet they chose that location to live when they moved in!
I suppose the only thing you might argue is that back in 2008 (when occupancy took place), LRT wasn't really in anyone's radar at all.
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(09-02-2016, 02:29 PM)Canard Wrote: ...
I suppose the only thing you might argue is that back in 2008 (when occupancy took place), LRT wasn't really in anyone's radar at all.
That is about the only reasonable argument. Where it has been a long standing goal to increase use of the park. That was a little used railway spur that up until recently had no plans for major expansion.
But I still don't buy it that much, or at least, I'd say that too much noise overnight might still be a reasonable complaint, but daytime noise, yeah, it's a transportation corridor, it was foreseeable it could be heavily used.
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(09-02-2016, 02:29 PM)Canard Wrote: Not at all different Joe - valid point totally and very much agreed.
The folks who live next to Canada's Wonderland kicked up a huge stink when they built Behemoth (and later, Leviathan) at the perimeter of the park. Yet they chose that location to live when they moved in!
I suppose the only thing you might argue is that back in 2008 (when occupancy took place), LRT wasn't really in anyone's radar at all.
Although as far as I know, the "lights and bells" locations are all on existing railway lines. So if one were to assume that an existing rail line would slowly fade towards abandonment, that would be a bet which one might win or lose, and in either case one has no grounds to complain about the outcome.
Way back when the first tourist train started up between Waterloo and St. Jacobs I remember people complaining. I remember thinking that unless they had been living in their house since 1880 they really don't have much cause for complaint. Although to be fair I think some of them had concerns about the station layout and so on, not just the presence of the train itself.
I hadn't heard of the Canada's Wonderland situation. That's kind of funny.
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It is. It's the same up around Pearson - if you drive through any of the housing developments that are spawning up around there, they have absolutely massive signs with a huge WARNING printed on them and an airplane symbol, warning future home-buyers of the noise and that "it's your fault if you move here".
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It's an argument I hate hearing come up, because it's how our communities are largely speaking. In a region of almost 600,000, so many people still feel they're part of communities of under 100K (Waterloo folks often ignore students, which would perhaps just get you under that bar). This leads to the arguments about Catalina being the appropriate scale of "urban" development. You live in a core area, expect that the densest, noisiest, widest-array of development is coming to be your neighbour.
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(09-02-2016, 01:59 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: I put weather stripping around my door, but I'm also at the end of a hall. If my neighbour slams his kitchen cupboards closed with force, I hear them. Even a friend in Arrow lofts recently agreed to a condo offer to better soundproof walls (though they only did some, which seems doubly wasteful to me).
We live at Arrow, and we're very pleased with the low noise levels -- it's quieter than our house in the townships was! The only thing I have done is weatherstrip the front door frame, and I did that mainly to cut off the light leakage around the door, not for the noise. I have no recent data point from any other condo building, though.
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Be careful with the weatherstripping thing - it's actually illegal and the Fire Marshal can fine you.
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I see from some Twitter posts that the Wilson Avenue track has been put in - embedded! I was expecting plates on sleepers, here.
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(09-02-2016, 07:54 PM)KevinL Wrote: I see from some Twitter posts that the Wilson Avenue track has been put in - embedded! I was expecting plates on sleepers, here.
Could it be because it is a longer crossing length and no freight runs on it?
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