Downtown Knoxville car noise is a documented problem. Will a $27,000 camera solve it?

The city of Knoxville intends to purchase a $27,000 noise-monitoring camera to track downtown's noise pollution problem but doesn't have a plan for how it would enforce city noise ordinances.

Chief Policy Officer Erin Gill told Knoxville City Council members during a workshop Thursday that noise ordinances are "notoriously hard to enforce" and require a lot of time and resources.

"We hope that we can see an eye toward a future in which we might be able to get toward an effective strategy," Gill said. "With the deployment of the camera, I would say that we are at the cutting edge of addressing this issue."

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How bad is noise pollution downtown?

A camera at the intersection of Gay Street and Clinch Avenue was installed in February as part of a free pilot program to better understand how often noise violations occur.

From February 23 to July 12, the camera recorded about 1,300 instances of excessive noise.

The violations recorded by the camera averaged about 90 decibels, above the city's ordinance level for downtown speed limits.

Ninety decibels is similar to attending a concert or using a leaf blower and is twice as loud as 80 decibels, according to Decibel Pro.

"I think a lot of downtown residents and business owners alike do expect higher than average ambient noise level," Carter Hall, city policy and business innovation manager, told Knox News. "We're not talking about normal downtown hustle and bustle noise. We're talking about these sounds that are much higher than you would expect and are much higher than a downtown ambient noise level."

Peak times for violations were around 8 a.m. Saturday and 2 a.m. Sunday. During the week, most violations occurred around 8 p.m. or 2-4 a.m.

"It's happening when people are downtown trying to eat or going to businesses, then when downtown residents are trying to sleep," Hall said.

Most vehicles, depending on weight, cannot exceed 86 decibels while driving under 35 mph or 90 decibels going over 35 mph. Vehicles must have a working muffler.

Hall said large pickup trucks and motorcycles were the majority of vehicles caught making excessive noise on camera, but it wasn't just a small group of repeat offenders. Many of those vehicles likely had modified mufflers, he said.

What will data be used for?

While the cameras could be used to issue citations for noise violations in the future, the main goal of the pilot program was to understand how many vehicles violate the city's noise ordinance and when.

"We know that excessive vehicle noise has been a consistent complaint from downtown residents," said Hall. Those complaints have increased in the last few years.

Knoxville was the third city worldwide to try cameras from Intelligent Instruments.

While Hall said there's no real solution to be drawn from the data, it's "the beginning of our ability to address this issue."

"We certainly (have) not found a silver bullet," Hall said. "We're not here to say that we have, but we think that this is a good step in trying to be creative and innovative in dealing with this issue."

While no enforcement or policy changes have been set, Vice Mayor Andrew Roberto said the workshop illuminated the issues and potential solutions.

"We're in need of an expert and maybe looking at ordinances for potential changes that might be able to help enforce these issues, because they are quality of life issues," Roberto said. "We really need to move forward on that expeditiously."

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What's stopping citations?

Hall said using the camera to issue citations would require changing city ordinance. But there's no timeline on when changes would occur.

Other cities have tried to curb excessive noise by updating ordinances, Hall said. New Orleans conducts annual vehicle inspections to catch modified mufflers, and Fort Lauderdale increased the excessive noise penalty.

Despite these changes, Hall said these cities still struggle with excessive noise. So far, the downtown camera has not deterred drivers, Hall said.

There are a few other hurdles to issuing citations, which are limited by state law to $50.

Right now, the Knoxville Police Department and other enforcement bodies don't have access to camera system to issue citations. There's also no easy way to sift through the camera's data, and violations would have to be examined manually.

What happens next?

Some city council members questioned purchasing the camera without next steps in place.

"Moving forward with purchasing equipment, having a third-party vendor and not having clear policies or an understanding of the intended use or end goal of the technology worries me," Councilmember Amelia Parker said Thursday. "That's something that I would like to see in place before the city with making an investment."

If there are no competitors on the market, Hall said the city policy office, which does not need council approval to purchase the camera, plans to issue an "intent to sole source," which would bypass a formal bidding process if approved.

The money would come out of the general city budget, according to Hall.

If the city purchases the camera it would move around to areas like Cumberland Avenue that also deal with excessive vehicle noise.

Silas Sloan: Covering growth and development in East Tennessee
Twitter: @silasloan| Email: silas.sloan@knoxnews.com
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Downtown Knoxville car noise documented on city sound camera