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Noise pollution hurts the heart

theatlantic.com

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Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#61

Post by asdffdsa »

pivo wrote: post #23
boredumb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harleys stock are actually under the legal noise limit (80 decibels i think?) and are generally that loud due to straight exhaust and a specific cam shaft they use to squeeze more performance out of them. My understanding is folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often. Dirt bikes are around 100 decibels, perform like trash and shouldn't be on the freeway near cars in…

> folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often If you want to do something that’s too dangerous to do without infuriating everyone around you, maybe you just shouldn’t do it. I don’t think those super loud exhausts are stock either. There are tons of bikers who replace the stock pipes with the loudest ones they can find. I don’t get it at all.

Motorcycles reduce congestion and emit less carbon emissions than SUVs, sedans, trucks, etc. Sure, loud exhausts shouldn't be used, but banning them without addressing the problem of incompetent drivers only further encourages a bygone car culture that is already arguably too pervasive in our society.

As a side note, this line of thinking "[it infuriates others so] maybe you shouldn't do it" leans totalitarian which in turn leads to suboptimal outcomes (since no one person or even organization knows the optimal way of living or organizing society -- e.g. no mortals can play "god" so to speak). Also, many people are "infuriated" by trivial things, so it's not always a good way to live life imagining who these ambiguous others are and also to placate to their imagined sensibilities.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#62

Post by mc32 »

LinuxBender wrote: post #6
baron816 wrote: post #3

There are few things that make me angrier than when a Harley-Davidson style motorcycle (or a pack of them) drive past me while I’m walking down the street. I can’t believe cities haven’t prohibited them, especially at night. Those things are specifically designed to create noise pollution. They’re so fucking obnoxious, even just thinking about it while I’m writing this is working me up.

Many most? cities do have noise ordinance laws that would prohibit choppers, but then cops have to decide if that want to take on that battle. Most bikers are super friendly. Some of them are not. One of the biker gangs in my area use a cocktail of drugs that make them fearless, angry, violent and it usually takes half a dozen cops to take down one of the bikers.

It’s not only choppers that are loud.

High RPM street bikes which get “gunned” by their riders are also very loud and more frequent than passé choppers.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#63

Post by boredumb »

LurkersWillLurk wrote: post #53
boredumb wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You believe we need a more authoritarian society because some people live lives that are louder than you deem appropriate and enough so that you are willing to 'respond with force' and you somehow see them as the people who are "fucking up the whole game"?

I don't think the city council is oppressing anyone by having the police issue citations to people who wake me up at night with their obnoxious mufflers. The personal satisfaction from having a loud muffler is actually less important than my ability to sleep at night.

I may be misunderstanding, but having a city council isn't an antithesis to self organizing societies.

In my understanding abandoning self organizing societies that could have more or less noise friendly communities in favor of top down politics that more closely resemble a centrally planned society/dictatorship.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#64

Post by khafra »

LurkersWillLurk wrote: post #53
boredumb wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You believe we need a more authoritarian society because some people live lives that are louder than you deem appropriate and enough so that you are willing to 'respond with force' and you somehow see them as the people who are "fucking up the whole game"?

I don't think the city council is oppressing anyone by having the police issue citations to people who wake me up at night with their obnoxious mufflers. The personal satisfaction from having a loud muffler is actually less important than my ability to sleep at night.

The Coase Theorem suggests that, with sufficiently frictionless microtransactions, people who prefer to make noise and people who prefer not to hear noise could all be happier.

Maybe a phone app with a decibel-meter and a distance metric to each other such app within hearing distance, with pre-authorized amounts to transfer for each decibel level created/experienced?

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#65

Post by firstfewshells »

belly_joe wrote: post #2

I feel the sound -> stress connection palpably. Especially sudden loud noises like a horn honking cause me to feel upset for a long while after being startled. Seems like a convincing argument to me for car-free spaces, although honestly I just wish we had stronger social norms against unnecessarily using a car's horn.

Well, I hope you never have to travel to India where people honk when the red light is on. Why? Coz they're bored and they "want" the light to turn green.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#66

Post by xapata »

tayo42 wrote: post #49
ReactiveJelly wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's frustrating that some people just don't believe in the human right to peace and quiet. That's one reason why I have no hope for self-organizing models of society. There are griefers who only respond to force, and it doesn't take many of them to fuck up the whole game.

Lately I've come to the conclusion that peace and quiet really is a luxury to have. Most people I don't think get to experience it. You need to have money to have it so you can live somewhere nice. Other wise your stuck living in apartment buildings, crowded cities, next to noisy neighbors. Go to busy shared spaces (ppl stop playing radios out doors!) or staying in shitty hotels.

There are plenty of poor people with peace and quiet in rural areas.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#67

Post by flycaliguy »

airstrike wrote: post #26
belly_joe wrote: post #2

I feel the sound -> stress connection palpably. Especially sudden loud noises like a horn honking cause me to feel upset for a long while after being startled. Seems like a convincing argument to me for car-free spaces, although honestly I just wish we had stronger social norms against unnecessarily using a car's horn.

I have this wild pet idea that we should be have a meter connected to a car's horn and at the end of the year you have to pay a bill for the amount you used. Something like $0.10 / second. You'll still honk when you need to but think twice before using it to annoy other drivers.

I like your thinking but the dystopian reality would be a wealthy elite class of honkers giving us all heart attacks.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#68

Post by neolog »

khafra wrote: post #64
LurkersWillLurk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the city council is oppressing anyone by having the police issue citations to people who wake me up at night with their obnoxious mufflers. The personal satisfaction from having a loud muffler is actually less important than my ability to sleep at night.

The Coase Theorem suggests that, with sufficiently frictionless microtransactions, people who prefer to make noise and people who prefer not to hear noise could all be happier. Maybe a phone app with a decibel-meter and a distance metric to each other such app within hearing distance, with pre-authorized amounts to transfer for each decibel level created/experienced?

"could all be happier" probably not, since currently the noisemakers are maximally happy making noise without paying anybody.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#69

Post by nitrogen »

pb7 wrote: post #60
neolog wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by it's a luxury? That it's nice? or rare? or should be rare?

I think rare in the sense that few can afford to have it.

Part of the problem is that those who don't appreciate it will see how nice a quiet town in the country is, then move from the big city to that town and destroy the very thing they originally enjoyed.

Or bring a bluetooth boombox into the wilderness and play it so it can be heard for a mile away.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#70

Post by jacobolus »

josefresco wrote: post #41
boredumb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harleys stock are actually under the legal noise limit (80 decibels i think?) and are generally that loud due to straight exhaust and a specific cam shaft they use to squeeze more performance out of them. My understanding is folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often. Dirt bikes are around 100 decibels, perform like trash and shouldn't be on the freeway near cars in…

"My understanding is folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often." As a member of a motorcycle riding family in the US (I don't ride, but several close family members do) this is hilariously wrong. They like it loud because they like the sound, and they like to get noticed. I say hilariously because I constantly joke with my family members about how silly the bike cu…

> like to get noticed

This is a euphemism for "take pleasure in causing physical discomfort to everyone within earshot".

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