West Kelowna, B.C., bans ice cream trucks from playing annoying electronic jingles

Personally, I hate ice cream truck music.

I understand it's there to herald the approach of the slab-sided white van and trigger a Pavlovian desire among kids and their parents for creamy bars and frozen flavoured ice treats on a stick.

But the music! If you can call 30 seconds of endlessly looped high-pitched digital tinkling with sound quality about the same as one of those audio chips they embed in greeting cards music.

I mean, check out this YouTube video shot in New York a few years ago.

If I had to work in one of those trucks I'd have my earbuds jammed in tight blaring death metal to keep out that jingle. Either that or go nuts.

Even hearing it for a couple of minutes as the truck trundles by is fingernails on blackboard.

Apparently I'm not alone. The city of West Kelowna, on the west side of Okanagan Lake, has opted to ban the familiar sound of summer after complaints from residents about the "noise," the National Post reports.

Mayor Doug Findlater said he doesn't mind the sound himself, though he used to feel differently.

"When I was a young dad living in Glenrosa, I always hated the sound of an ice cream truck because it meant that (my kids) were chasing me, and then we were all chasing the truck down the street," he told Kelowna Capital News.

But a councillor who opposed the new Mobile Vendor Policy, which mutes music and voice amplification on food and ice cream trucks, said the ban will hurt West Kelowna's image, the Post reported.

"I don't want us to go down as [a] no-fun city," said Bryden Winsby. "Music is a good thing; some loud noises aren't bad at all. They give you a sense of celebration or excitement."

Capital News columnist Kathy Michaels said council should have ignored the wet blankets who wanted the trucks silenced.

"Bylaws catering to potential intolerance are a bit over-reactionary," she wrote this week.

Michaels noted the mayor of New York tried to kill ice cream truck music at one time, only to face a public backlash that forced him to compromise. The trucks could play when they were moving but not while parked and serving customers.

She suggests city council consider that option when they hold a final vote on the bylaw next month.

Me, I'd settle for a little better sound fidelity and maybe some tune that wouldn't become an evil ear worm for the rest of the day.