There are a few ways to manage this. The first way is to have larger sidewalks. This puts traffic further away from the buildings and there is less echo rever

There are a few ways to manage this. The first way is to have larger sidewalks. This puts traffic further away from the buildings and there is less echo reverberating up sides of buildings. The sidewalks are larger in Gastown and deeper in Yaletown. Granville Street is being repaved to have larger sidewalks, too. The second way to do this is to make the first floor retail. Then make floors 2 through 10 be commercial office space. People don't have to sleep in this space so sound doesn't matter as much. I live on the 17th floor and I don't really notice traffic noise. I do get noise from Granville Street on Friday and Saturday from the Christian Audigier crowd. If I go to bed early on the weekend, I just sleep with ear plugs in. Inconvenient, but not that huge of a deal. I used to live in the West End across from a senior's home. I swear an ambulance used to rip up the street at least once a week with it's siren blaring to pick up a senior. Ear plugs don't help in that case. The third way to reduce noise is to have better windows. The building does have almost floor to ceiling windows and they are not the most sound proof. The City of Vancouver needs to improve the building code with respect to windows. It would save a lot more energy, too.