The most annoying thing are the buses. The cars are just ambient noise to me, but every 15 minutes I hear a loud vrooooom, and their exhausts are so disgusting.
Man, I wish my city would buy EV buses.
Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
101–110 of 320 posts
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#102I live in a high-rise condo next to a six-lane stroad that was even showcased on this YouTube channel and the 24/7 traffic noise is annoying, particularly when you want to go for a walk and can't even hold a conversation. This didn't happen in the places where I lived back in Europe because zoning laws were different. Instead of the sprawl of freehold single family homes separate from a dense urban core, these much q…
I see this take about Japan all the time and do not understand it. No offence, but have you spent any time in Japan? Rural areas might be quiet for sheer low population density, but the cities are disgusting. PM2.5 levels in Tokyo yesterday were like 6x WHO limits and absolutely no one on the local news was talking about it. Every morning I see pregnant and new mothers with infants or small children squeezing between…
I just walked out onto my 3rd floor balcony in Tokyo at 8:30pm and my watch says it is 38dB. I can hear some light car traffic in the distance. I live about a 20 minute walk to Shibuya crossing, so not exactly rural. I also live about 100m from Yamatedori which is a giant arterial road.
I used to live in NYC. Tokyo is a very quiet city. Not all parts for sure... you can have an apartment by a train crossing or they might build a highway outside your 6th floor window, but I would say that most of the parts where people live is pretty quiet.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#103I live near an intersection, and the most annoying noise is honking. Why do driver have to honk so much is beyond me. Also quite annoying is ambulance/police. They are really loud.
Honking is basically the only real way drivers have to communicate with the world outside their car. When a honk is needed to say anything you have to use it for everything. (The contrast is particularly stark against e.g. cycling where you can just match pace with a stranger and hold a brief conversation about whatever happened.)
I think I can count on two hands the amount of times I've used my horn in 20 years of driving.
It's used for when I think someone hasn't seen me (ie. reversing), or if the lights have turned green and the person isn't paying attention. The latter will be a bump on the horn (so about 100ms) where I doubt it gets up to full volume.
People are quite happy to wind down the window in order to show their displeasure with a hand gesture where I live.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see this take about Japan all the time and do not understand it. No offence, but have you spent any time in Japan? Rural areas might be quiet for sheer low population density, but the cities are disgusting. PM2.5 levels in Tokyo yesterday were like 6x WHO limits and absolutely no one on the local news was talking about it. Every morning I see pregnant and new mothers with infants or small children squeezing between…
> PM2.5 levels in Tokyo yesterday were like 6x WHO limits Is it worse than SA, London or any other megacity of the world?
Who cares?
Everybody wants clean air, they just live with the bad one because the big city pays well (though when you correct it for costs of living, it gets muddier).
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and wonder what the cost of all of this will be Likely the same extended lifespan that's been prevalent in Japan over the past century of smoking, diesel and construction (along with the occasional nuclear catastrophe). Humans are apparently more ruggedized than they look on paper.
You are just one sentence away from saying "human quality of life doesn't matter, we must think of the economy". Shortness of breath is something doctors report as a more and more common symptom of city dwellers. Not reported on the news because nobody -- apparently you included -- cares, but I've been to doctors lately, and they complained that the lung and heart doctors are overbooked lately while the others have a…
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Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't forget motorcycles.
This is the one that gets me. It would be trivial to regulate, and the inspections already happen. But no, straight pipe hot rod bikes are somehow a human necessity.
It almost certainly is regulated but not enforced, just like having car windows tinted like Darth Vader’s helmet. Motor vehicles are fascinating that way because so many people have bought into the manufacturer’s “wheels = freedom” marketing that even people who are otherwise very law-and-order resist most attempts at accountability. That’s especially true for motorcycles since they’re so popular with off-duty police.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but the cities are disgusting Which non-Japanese cities are you comparing it to here?
Take your pick. There’s no special magic to Japanese cities. They’re dominated by traffic and construction, full stop. The air is filthy.
Well not all Japanese cities are the same, and it is unfair to categorize a megalopolis like Tokyo as one thing or another as it's too varied for that.
While Tokyo does have no shortage of highways and cars they do have plenty of mixed zone medium density, walkable areas that are free from car noise. That is not a feature of any part of most US cities except maybe the CBD. It is also much more uncommon to find stroads in Japanese cities, while a stroad is the default for many western cities.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are just one sentence away from saying "human quality of life doesn't matter, we must think of the economy". Shortness of breath is something doctors report as a more and more common symptom of city dwellers. Not reported on the news because nobody -- apparently you included -- cares, but I've been to doctors lately, and they complained that the lung and heart doctors are overbooked lately while the others have a…
This could also be because people don't go out as much - perhaps for fear of pollution. Generally, it takes a lot of pollution to counter the positive health effects of active commuting. It was a while since I did the research, but someone estimated that you need to cycle for more than sixteen hours per day for the pollution to outweigh the cardio benefits in the 90th percentile of cities ordered by pollution. There…
Sure, that might be a factor but I honestly have no clue where to get out. Me and my wife just always land in the local restaurant which is 10-15 minutes away because there's literally nothing walkable in 30 mins foot radius.
So yeah we gave up and just go eat out. :|
So not only is the air bad, the walkable places are few and far between, strongly discouraging people to even go where the better air is or, as you said, just have the cardio from walking/cycling to improve your health.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
> PM2.5 levels in Tokyo yesterday were like 6x WHO limits and absolutely no one on the local news was talking about it What are you talking about? Localities sent a smog alert, made announcements on the speaker, and there was a whole thing. It was a particularly hot day as well. I don’t have that many reference points to be fair, but almost every time I’ve checked general air quality (at least according to the first…
It’s been like this for days, it will continue into next week. We had no announcements where I am, none of the news broadcasts I checked (and I checked a few) mentioned it. The Tokyo metro site wouldn’t even load on my phone. Glad you got a heads up. Don’t really care what Paris is like, tbh. Shit air is shit air. Saying it’s shitter somewhere else isn’t super compelling. The whole point of my original comment was th…
https://www.iqair.com/japan/tokyo
Site has Historic air quality graph for Tokyo and the daily chart shows the air quality is very good.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#110I miss Amsterdam and the Netherlands so much sometimes... (sob)
That video might just as well have been made by the Dutch tourism bureau (if they even need one!)