Noise and how to measure it
Attn: Community Bulletin
Re: Airport Noise Survey Bureaucratically Biased
Community groups and residents of Toronto's Harbourfront are
criticizing the Toronto Island Airport for biased noise survey results.
I understand the community point of view, as a soundman who lives near the airport.
Harbourfront residents are calling the airport noise survey Bureaucratically Biased.
The problem is the airport noise survey is based on ICAO Noise Survey Guidelines.
ICAO Noise Survey Guidelines are used for airplane certification. ICAO Noise Surveys
do not tell you how much noise you're hearing, because ICAO noise survey procedures
average all the noise readings, giving an averaged reading, not noise peak readings.
Then, after averaging noise readings, to take out noisy peaks, ICAO Noise Surveys
adjust the noise readings to achieve standardized noise readings, so noise from one plane
can be compared to noise standards for other planes, putting a plane in a noise group
for airplane certification purposes. The averaged and adjusted numbers in an ICAO
noise survey are not real, raw readings. ICAO does not tell us what we are hearing.
When the airport tells the community that noise levels are averaging 80 decibels,
after standard adjustments are made, this is not the same noise level I hear in my home.
When I stand on my balcony, with a noise meter in my hand, I see I am hearing 98 db
of noise from Toronto Island Airport, when engines are run full speed for maintenance.
Which noise survey numbers would you believe - the island airport company survey
which says the island airport makes a noise of 80 db, or the noise meter in my hand
which says the island airport sometimes shakes the neighborhood with 98 db of noise.
By way of comparison, a harbourfront concert at full blast is only 90 decibels.
The island airport sometimes breaks legal noise barriers but they have bureaucratically
adjusted numbers which prove otherwise. This is not an issue of planes or noise. This is
an issue of honesty and how a community can be manipulated with false information.
Max Moore
Re: Airport Noise Survey Bureaucratically Biased
Community groups and residents of Toronto's Harbourfront are
criticizing the Toronto Island Airport for biased noise survey results.
I understand the community point of view, as a soundman who lives near the airport.
Harbourfront residents are calling the airport noise survey Bureaucratically Biased.
The problem is the airport noise survey is based on ICAO Noise Survey Guidelines.
ICAO Noise Survey Guidelines are used for airplane certification. ICAO Noise Surveys
do not tell you how much noise you're hearing, because ICAO noise survey procedures
average all the noise readings, giving an averaged reading, not noise peak readings.
Then, after averaging noise readings, to take out noisy peaks, ICAO Noise Surveys
adjust the noise readings to achieve standardized noise readings, so noise from one plane
can be compared to noise standards for other planes, putting a plane in a noise group
for airplane certification purposes. The averaged and adjusted numbers in an ICAO
noise survey are not real, raw readings. ICAO does not tell us what we are hearing.
When the airport tells the community that noise levels are averaging 80 decibels,
after standard adjustments are made, this is not the same noise level I hear in my home.
When I stand on my balcony, with a noise meter in my hand, I see I am hearing 98 db
of noise from Toronto Island Airport, when engines are run full speed for maintenance.
Which noise survey numbers would you believe - the island airport company survey
which says the island airport makes a noise of 80 db, or the noise meter in my hand
which says the island airport sometimes shakes the neighborhood with 98 db of noise.
By way of comparison, a harbourfront concert at full blast is only 90 decibels.
The island airport sometimes breaks legal noise barriers but they have bureaucratically
adjusted numbers which prove otherwise. This is not an issue of planes or noise. This is
an issue of honesty and how a community can be manipulated with false information.
Max Moore
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