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Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

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Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#231

Post by sarchertech »

ajuc wrote: post #178
sarchertech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. That's hugely hyperbolic. But in the city there really are constant sirens, car horns, diesel trucks, construction noises, roadway noise etc... The most comprehensive study done on this (admittedly a long time ago in 1970) shows a clear correlation between po…

Cities aren't inherently louder than countryside. Car traffic is noisy, but the volume is proportional to the speed. Cars going 30 km/h aren't THAT noisy. You don't hear them through the windows. Cars going 90 km/h are VERY noisy and at that point it doesn't matter if they are electric or not - you mostly hear the tires and the aerodynamics. Using car horns at cities is forbidden anyway, unless there's a crash or a d…

All else being equal, more people = more noise.

Since all else isn’t equal, you could design cities that are quieter than the most suburbs. But you could also design suburbs that are quieter than most cities.

In the US at least I linked a study that showed cities are far louder on average.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#232

Post by DelTaco »

chaps wrote: post #149
zabzonk wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, a kennel? Forgive me, I am not a dog person, though I quite like my cleaning ladys little doggie.

Some dogs love them for their feeling of security, some dogs hate them because they feel confined.

My dog loves his for security; we always leave it open and whenever he feels stressed out he'll go in there for a bit to recharge. We have a blanket over the top and sides with the crate under the stairs so it feels like a cave to him!

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#233

Post by sarchertech »

gonehome wrote: post #145
sarchertech wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t doubt that people are more likely to notice sounds in the suburbs because they aren’t habituated to them. But saying the suburbs are louder is like saying it’s actually quieter to live next to a gun range than it is to live next to the woods, because when the occasional hunter fires his gun you are more likely to notice it.

There’s really not that much road noise in a lot of cities unless you live near a couple of particularly busy streets.

The study I linked showed that on average there is.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#234

Post by nojs »

zeta0134 wrote: post #150
QuikAccount wrote: post #26

Anecdata but I recently got headphones with noise cancelling and my quality of life shot through the roof. According to my smartwatch, my heart rate is lower and stress levels are down. Unfortunately, I have to take my headphones off to go to sleep and I'm immediately reminded of the shoddy fridge in my apartment, vent noises, and my neighbor who doesn't realize it's 11:30 PM.

To finally solve for this, I installed a set of 2.1 computer speakers under my bed, and I have my phone run a 10 hour recording I found of an air conditioner. The noise this generates sounds just like the real thing, and I keep it juuuust loud enough to drown out the road noise and upstairs neighbor's heavy footsteps. A click or two louder if their dog starts going nuts at 3am. I'd prefer actual quiet, but a low stea…

I use the Bose “sleep buds” which do exactly this but in your ears. After reading this article though, I wonder if such white noise is good or bad (my recording of choice, ironically, is train noise).

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#235

Post by sgt »

mguerville wrote: post #22
paisawalla wrote: post #14

If we in CA could achieve compliance with the already standing laws against loud exhaust to anywhere near the levels we have with, say, plastic straw riddance, the resulting benefit to society would be drastically superior. I can't think of anything with a lower cost/benefit ratio than just the wholesale confiscation and ban of Harleys.

Agreed, i can’t believe you can get ticketed for a broken taillight but someone can ride a Harley and disrupt hundreds of people anyone, basically anyone within a 50 meter radius, in total impunity.

In the US you have so many Harley's too. At some point (as a kid) I was really impressed when a Harley came past. "WOWWW! Imagine what it would like to be that guy!". Eventually everyone got a Harley and every single one of the riders needed a super loud exhaust. It's certainly less impressive today.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#236

Post by bjoli »

ajuc wrote: post #178
sarchertech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. That's hugely hyperbolic. But in the city there really are constant sirens, car horns, diesel trucks, construction noises, roadway noise etc... The most comprehensive study done on this (admittedly a long time ago in 1970) shows a clear correlation between po…

Cities aren't inherently louder than countryside. Car traffic is noisy, but the volume is proportional to the speed. Cars going 30 km/h aren't THAT noisy. You don't hear them through the windows. Cars going 90 km/h are VERY noisy and at that point it doesn't matter if they are electric or not - you mostly hear the tires and the aerodynamics. Using car horns at cities is forbidden anyway, unless there's a crash or a d…

We moved to a townhouse 2km from the city centre after living 15km outside the city and the difference in noise is staggering. We had a mildly trafficked 70km/h road about 150m from our house (with a property in between) and the noise from that road was more or less constant. We could hear cars from almost a kilometre away over the open fields, so one car per minute meant almost constant noise.

Now we live in a not-so-popular area built during a great housing programme in the 60s ("miljonprogrammet" in Swedish) and we love it. Lots of green areas, all parking is in the outer perimeter so we have almost no traffic. The modern areas built in town are nowhere near as well planned from a life quality perspective.

I am not anonymous (nor even pseudonymous) here, so I might as well mention that the area is Vilbergen in the city of Norrköping.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#237

Post by thisistheend123 »

hans1729 wrote: post #189
thisistheend123 wrote: post #161

No one here has mentioned the most horrific noise that has come into existence only a few years ago. I am talking about apps like Facebook, Instagram suddenly playing sound of a video at full blast when it scrolls into view in a feed. God I hate these apps and this thing called smartphone that has taken over our lives. Fuck all this modern shit. We should have never come out of the caves.

Then just don’t use those apps? I don’t, and nobody above 30 in my circle does. No need stay in caves, just adapt some culture.

I don't do, but can't stop my spouse sitting beside me from doing that ... Hence the problem .. :-)

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#238

Post by bigDinosaur »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #216
bigDinosaur wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never noticed, walking around the nicer European cities, that any of those things made nearly the same level of noise as the cars. Seriously, walk through Paris or something and tell me that clubs and bars and helicopters and AC are even nearly as loud as the cars when you walk next to a busy road. I can't think of an exception to this in any city I've been in, honestly. Which cities have lots of clubs and bars wit…

Some of Paris is nice, quiet, leafy arrondissements. Quite a lot is not.

That's not my point. My point is that the noisy parts are the parts with cars, and the areas without many cars do not have anything approaching the noise levels of busy roads. I am aware that not all of Paris is quiet and leafy...

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#239

Post by bigDinosaur »

Tade0 wrote: post #199
bigDinosaur wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never noticed, walking around the nicer European cities, that any of those things made nearly the same level of noise as the cars. Seriously, walk through Paris or something and tell me that clubs and bars and helicopters and AC are even nearly as loud as the cars when you walk next to a busy road. I can't think of an exception to this in any city I've been in, honestly. Which cities have lots of clubs and bars wit…

Try the less nice ones then. In terms of decibels cars are indeed louder. But not all noise is created equal. I have noise-cancelling headphones - they do a great job removing white noise(so traffic, among others), but aren't too effective against sounds with a more focused spectrum like people yelling in the middle of the night, bottles being broken or trash being collected in the middle of the night.

I...have walked around the less nice parts of Paris? I'm not sure what your point is. In the less nice parts of Paris, the noisy areas are still mostly the areas with busy roads. It's simply the biggest source of noise pollution in cities and I haven't found anything that comes close. Maybe in specific areas you can find people playing obnoxiously loud music with helicopters buzzing over constantly but that's certainly a very specific and hopefully rare set of circumstances. The same with yelling and crime and so on. If that's the default in your city I'd agree you have vastly greater problems than the sound of cars.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#240

Post by bigDinosaur »

bogomipz wrote: post #169
bigDinosaur wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never noticed, walking around the nicer European cities, that any of those things made nearly the same level of noise as the cars. Seriously, walk through Paris or something and tell me that clubs and bars and helicopters and AC are even nearly as loud as the cars when you walk next to a busy road. I can't think of an exception to this in any city I've been in, honestly. Which cities have lots of clubs and bars wit…

Miami, NYC, LA to name a few. And it's far more prevalent now since covid as most places have some outdoor seating now and they've seemingly all installed speakers.

That's unfortunate, and definitely sounds like a problem that should be dealt with. For whatever reason the same thing didn't happen in Australian cities which are structurally quite similar to North American cities so it's not inevitable.
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