Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't forget motorcycles.
Where I live motorcycles are usually the loudest vehicle I hear everyday.
I think unless you live near an airport, that's the case for most people.
Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
141–150 of 320 posts
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#142I 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…
Europe is definitely not a monolith with regards to noise. Loudest place I’ve ever lived is Barcelona. Was a one-way side street but the scooter noise was still insane. Cars make a lot of noise but at least in my city-living experience across both Europe and US people at bar closing times, parties, construction, scooters and motorcycles are far worse for noise affecting quality of life. Also remembering what it was l…
Cars have more trouble going fast through narrow streets, so they go slower. Motorcycles and scooters in the city tends to have small engines for fuel economy and price, so they have to run at much higher RPMs compared to cars for the same speed. They also have much less ability to dampen the sound because the exhaust system can only be so long. Then there are people who purposely put loud pipes on. They are better space and efficiency wise, but in terms of low speed noise they sure are worse. Two wheeled vehicles don't tend to encourage the kind of space waste in north american suburbia though, so I think they are still preferable.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
At highway speeds there might not be much difference in noise levels, but there's a huge difference on city streets. In cities in with particularly noisy vehicles such as motorcycles, diesel buses, etc, electrification makes a huge difference. With EVs slowly becoming more dominant in central London (most taxis, and many buses and delivery vans are electric now), I've several times had the slightly eerie (but happy)…
> diesel buses Ah, we love the electric ones here in sweden! Of course they have to stop ~20 minutes to recharge instead of just turning back. And of course when it's cold (which surprisingly does happen in sweden) the batteries can't hold enough charge to do 1 run, so they can't run.
If one bus means 10 cars and motorcycles stay off the road, the extra loud noise is probably worth it. IMO electric buses are a low priority task for most cities.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#144The anti car bias on HN is such a blind spot. Yes, lots of us work on computers and have metropolitan hobbies. Huge numbers of people don't. It's an empathy gap. Cars aren't worse or better, they're just different. You can't have NYC with LA's parking and you can't have LA with NYC's parking.
Look, having to commute to work sucks. This isnt an empathy gap, or if it is maybe in the other direction. Commuting half an hour or more to your retail job due to essentially zoning laws isn't great, and it could be made better.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
Okay, well, more than 20 years living here and I reckon the air quality is terrible and that in 2023 it should be a much higher priority than it is. I have to raise my kids here.
I’m sure the total absence of zero emissions vehicle options has absolutely nothing to do with the political influence of the Japanese automotive lobby.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
Huh? You are claiming Tokyo is shit, so is there a city of conparable size that does better? Or are you just demanding something impossible?
What’s impossible about it? Where are the bans on diesel trucks in the city centre? Where are the zero emissions vehicles visible in just about every other metropolis? Where are the congestion charges? Bike lanes? Tree cover?
This is a political problem and as long as the Japanese auto lobby has the LDP in their pocket, we who live here live the consequences.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
But what is your rebuttal to that? Seems obvious that it's safer if you can hear it than if you cant.
The solution is obvious -- look both ways before crossing. Don't depend on sound only to ensure your survival crossing a road.
You understand you are talking to humans here, right? Actual humans, who perform a lot of actions "on autopilot", without consciously thinking about them, and who may have deeply ingrained habits which are very, very hard to change?
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is EU regulation 2017/1576 that requires to make noises if driving at low speeds. https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/news/electric-and... I'm an EV fan, but lower noise levels makes them more dangerous, not less, at least to the people they can potentially hit (of course for people living next to roads, noise is more hazardous from a more general health point of view). Cars are killer machines and stuff…
You're right, but it's still weird. It's asking the outside people to shoulder the responsibility of avoiding the killer machine. I'd rather have quiet cars and much harsher crackdowns on drivers that use them in ways that jeopardy the lives of others. There are many things drivers can do to reduce the hazard, such as slowing down, buying smaller vehicles, using cars that don't isolate outside noise, only driving whe…
> I'd rather have quiet cars and much harsher crackdowns on drivers that use them in ways that jeopardy the lives of others. There are many things drivers can do to reduce the hazard, such as slowing down, buying smaller vehicles, using cars that don't isolate outside noise, only driving when in good mental condition, etc.
I get what you're saying, but IMO, that just wouldn't work well.
If you want a better system, it's better to make as many changes as possible to the system so that problems are impossible and/or unlikely.
Personal responsibility will always have it's place, but it'll never be particularly reliable.
> It's crazy to me that we allow cars that isolate their cockpit more and more from their surroundings (quiet, small windows, high up from the ground) and instead ask the surroundings to avoid the danger.
Being quiet and high aren't issues here. Drivers aren't going to hear pedestrians - not at 30 mph. And I've never been in a vehicle that had windows that I felt affected my awareness, aside from the rear window of the Prius.
> I know, ultimately it is each person's own responsibility to avoid death, and it might make sense for the legal system to reflect that. But we don't have these laws with other dangerous things
Sure, but that's because there's enormous social utility in allowing people to drive cars. If there was a similar utility in letting people throw molotov cocktails, then there'd probably be some sort of dispensation to do just what you suggest.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#149This is the second reason why I am in favor of electric vehicles. The first being that pollution creation will happen somewhere else instead of inside the community where I live.
Re: Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (2021) [video]
#150One reason this is a problem is that a road isn't a point source of noise, it's a line source. So the noise decreases only linearly with distance, not as the square.