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Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

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Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#111

Post by epolanski »

david-gpu wrote: post #17

I 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…

Say what you want about soviet city planning but it was damn efficient.

I have never ever seen a soviet-era suburb which didn't have 4 to 12 story buildings with parks and aisles all around them and all kind of services being at a 5 minutes walking distance top (church, shops, post office, elementary and middle school, etc).[1]

Literally under every building you would find people quietly enjoying their evening on the benches while watching their kids play all around in safety and green. All of those neighborhoods would be perfectly connected with city centers by public transport. Can't think of any of those places where from suburbs to downtown would take you more than 15/25 minutes top.

You could literally fit tens and tens of thousands of people in relatively small but very livable neighborhoods.

But cars have long ruined these kind of neighborhoods by reclaiming those places for parkings [2] (imagery is from 2017, in 2023 it is at least twice as dense in cars). People don't really enjoy their evenings chatting to each other because benches have been removed and kid playgrounds have been moved blocks away and everyone is sitting in their bunkers, uhm, homes, isolated from each other.

Maybe I might be romanticizing but honestly economical progress is such an overblown metric and progress does nothing but make people more and more lonely, anti social and unhappy. It was miles better when I was a kid in Poland.

[1] https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/urban-area-style-soviet-peri...

[2]https://www.google.it/maps/place/Osiedle+Kopernika/@49.81612...

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#112

Post by darkteflon »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #88
darkteflon wrote: post #44

Earlier 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?

[flagged]

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#113

Post by soco »

david-gpu wrote: post #17

I 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…

You can get noise pretty much everywhere, and can also get used to it. I lived once in a basement level with old tram lines in front of the house and it was like in those slapstick movies - the glass of water would fall off your bed stand. Yet you got used to it, although I couldn't call it "healthy".

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#114

Post by omegabravo »

pkphilip wrote: post #28

I see that you have never been to India

Author early in the video said Karachi, Pakistan can be over 140db during peak hour traffic. I expect India's population hot spots to be similar or worse. I understand how it arrived there, hopefully something can be done to address it.

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#115

Post by chrisldgk »

michaelteter wrote: post #84

There are two issues here. One is that we need to come up with comprehensive solutions for reducing the number of vehicles in use. But that’s a difficult problem where solutions take decades and must be tailored to each scenario. But what can be addressed now is the engine and exhaust sound levels. Some vehicles are loud because their engines are working hard, but many vehicles are loud because people (boys) want the…

I think you’re focusing on the wrong issue here. Engine noise nowadays is a lot less of a problem than tire noise, especially with cars going 50km/h+.

Some cars are loud because people want them to be, most cars are loud because the noise the tires make when driving is loud, and that only gets worse the more cars you have around.

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#116

Post by oldnetguy »

If anyone doesn't think cities are loud, they came come to my neighborhood at anytime. Between the bars, the "lounges" and just loud people in general.

In certain parts of NYC people just blast music from large speakers to small Bluetooth devices, even on public transportation.

Here is the 311 data for noise complaints and see how many are not car related.

https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Social-Services/311-Noise-Comp...

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#117

Post by david-gpu »

Barrin92 wrote: post #99
darkteflon wrote: post #44

Earlier 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…

>No offence, but have you spent any time in Japan? As someone who moved to Japan it's always funny. I think people literally get their impression from Japan solely from neo-Tokyo sci-fi from the 80s. The country has taken some of the worst cues from the US. Many cities like Tokyo are 75% suburban, single home, it's in fact the largest suburban region on the planet. The number of cars in the country is much higher tha…

>> No offence, but have you spent any time in Japan?

> As someone who moved to Japan it's always funny. I think people literally get their impression from Japan solely from neo-Tokyo sci-fi from the 80s.

Yes, I have visited Japan several times, multiple cities. My wife is Japanese.

But don't let that stop you. Please, continue.

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#118

Post by npteljes »

s_dev wrote: post #11
enlyth wrote: post #5

The author in the video kind of dismisses EVs saying that at speed there's not much of a difference, but one of the things I definitely noticed when visiting Bergen was how damn quiet the city was because almost everyone was driving EVs. It had a noticeably positive effect on me.

It's so weird that the 'noise' of petrol cars is considered a safety feature. I've heard from the older generation "Yeah but EVs don't make noise which makes them extremely dangerous. Could easily kill a child or old woman who steps out on to a road because they don't hear a car coming". It must be the same group of people with their anecdotes about seatbelts and airbags making cars more dangerous.

Yeah. The issue in itself has little merit, because cyclists are also very quiet, even quieter than an EV, and would also send a pedestrian flying on collision.

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#119

Post by asah »

haha, NYC has entered the chat.

Cars aren't loud, car SPEAKERS are loud.

The subway. Ambulances. Construction. Garbage truck compactors. Guys trying to get you into their restaurants. Panhandlers. Buskers. Customers haggling with street vendors. Hassidim on cellphones negotiating deals. Mothers on cellphones giving relationship advice. Laughing teenagers. Drunken couples having fights. Cops chit chatting with each other, or arresting people.

People have recorded the sounds of NYC and during the pandemic someone posted this to YouTube for nostalgia.

I've traveled to 35+ cities and they're all quiet compared with New York.

Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]

#120

Post by rtpg »

darkteflon wrote: post #85
rtpg wrote: post #74

Earlier 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…

I do not know what to tell you, I was informed through like 3 different ways.

I think “Tokyo has better air than other metropolises” is a kinda verifiable thing, and if you grant that it’s kinda normal to consider that! There’s a reason lots of people end up here from other countries, and it’s not the pay!

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