Road trafic more than doubled since the boulevard was transformed into highway 20
No municipal authority in Beaconsfield in the past 30 years has attempted to resolve the noise issue
Noise and risk increase
Air and noise pollution has been increasing since the transformation of the boulevard into a highway.
South side: There are twice as many cars as when the boulevard was transformed into a highway.
North side: Rail traffic has also at least doubled in the past 30 years.
No municipal authority in Beaconsfield in the past 30 years has attempted to resolve the noise issue, despite the doubling of traffic (and therefore noise) and the studies and proposals of the MTQ, WHO, DSPQ.
SOUTH: Twice as many cars – and noise
The rapid expansion of communities like Vaudreuil and Saint-Lazare has added enormous volume to daily traffic. Traffic on Highway 20 has doubled from 1982 to 64,000 vehicles per day in 2008. And it continues to increase noise and air pollution.
Table 1 presents the traffic flow (two directions) on Highway 20 as evaluated by the Ministère des Transports (MTQ) using the average summer daily flows (DJME) of 1982 and 2008 and such that they are reported in the two noise level studies (1987 and 2010).
Summer traffic flows (DJME) are used because this is the time of year when people are more likely to open their windows and therefore be exposed to traffic noise. In addition, even closed, some windows, less insulating, still allow several types of sound vibrations to pass through.