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The Scourge of Airport Noise

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Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#31

Post by esteth »

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #5

Kinda the same as 'please listen carefully as our menu options have changed' and 'we're experiencing higher than usual calls'. Or all the texts I get about remindeds of appointments followed by asking for reviews. It's like every channel is being abused to get us to do something. And I fail to pick out the important ones. Side note, with people wanting more dense housing, noise levels will go up.

Why would noise levels go up with densification?

Densification allows you to reduce car dependence, and most city noise is from cars.

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#32

Post by DoreenMichele »

esteth wrote: post #31
WirelessGigabit wrote: post #5

Kinda the same as 'please listen carefully as our menu options have changed' and 'we're experiencing higher than usual calls'. Or all the texts I get about remindeds of appointments followed by asking for reviews. It's like every channel is being abused to get us to do something. And I fail to pick out the important ones. Side note, with people wanting more dense housing, noise levels will go up.

Why would noise levels go up with densification? Densification allows you to reduce car dependence, and most city noise is from cars.

They go up if you build more densely and then hop in your car and drive an entire block to your destination, which some Americans insist on.

But if you walk, bike, take transit, it gets better.

People don't automatically adapt just because you build it differently and people typically have trouble imagining genuinely living differently without actually experiencing it.

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#33

Post by jhugo »

Passing through Jakarta airport the other day, there was an announcement which was literally on a continuous loop with no pause in between. It was only about 15 seconds long. Considering I couldn't understand a word of it, after a short while my mind drifted to a mental playback of the "corporate accounts payable Nina speaking - just a moment" scene from Office Space. Nobody around me seemed to be disturbed by it at all, though.

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#34

Post by acyou »

Complain about too much communication. Complain about too little. The happy medium is somewhere in the middle. The stressors are the complainers and extremists (author of this article included).

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#35

Post by ehnto »

maxweylandt wrote: post #30
WirelessGigabit wrote: post #5

Kinda the same as 'please listen carefully as our menu options have changed' and 'we're experiencing higher than usual calls'. Or all the texts I get about remindeds of appointments followed by asking for reviews. It's like every channel is being abused to get us to do something. And I fail to pick out the important ones. Side note, with people wanting more dense housing, noise levels will go up.

Noise in cities is primarily driven by cars. Densification if done right could even make things quieter (e g. Reduce stroads and have more bicycles)

Absolutely. Walking around Osaka, Tokyo etc, it's so incredibly quiet. Eventually you will come to a road and the difference is so obvious, you really feel how unpleasant roads are in a city.

It's surprising how much a bit of distance helps too. Just a street back from a stroad and you're already much better off sound wise. We don't have to abandon roads just be smarter with where we put faster roads (50kmph+ is probably not what people think of as fast but I find that is when noise is at unpleasant levels to those on the street. As well, it's tires not exhaust noise causing the majority of noise)

There are probably people reading this who like me thought nothing of road noise, no big deal, just a fact of life. But spaces are so much nicer without rushing cars on the majority of thoroughfares.

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#36

Post by nerdponx »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #14
spiggytopes wrote: post #8

'Your call is important to us.' Yeah, but clearly not important enough to justify hiring enough staff. This drives me crazy!

It is worse than that. They say it, stopping the musak with a slightly noisy pause first which almost sounds like someone picked up the phone so now I need to pay attention for the 4 hours it takes to get through not just zone out and code. It then become asshole design when they add 3 rings before that pause as if you finally are getting through! Evil phone system designers!

I always wondered why they did that. Is it supposed to fool you into thinking stuff is happening in the background? Like the computers are working really hard on your case, just be patient?

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#37

Post by jhugo »

langsoul-com wrote: post #22

I'd say one of the bigger issues is due to how legal everything has become. Most of those air cabin PA announcements are necessary to legally cover their asses. I doubt am airline would want to find out what happens in court if they didn't give those ps announcements.

There's big variation between airlines, though, so I think that's not the entire explanation. In many cases I think that there is nobody involved with the decision of which announcements to include who really has the job of caring about the overall passenger experience.

In some airlines in Asia you get every announcement in three languages, and your IFE is interrupted by all of them, regardless of whether you understand just one. Even worse, they put short pauses between them, teasing you with a couple seconds of your movie before interrupting it again. A basic level of care would be to interrupt the IFE only for the language you had chosen for the IFE when you first sat down.

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#38

Post by Symbiote »

Apparently I'm spoilt, as the airports I use most often (Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London Heathrow) are all quiet, with no announcements until at the gate when boarding behind.

Though every time I travel by train in England, they seem to have added more pointless drivel to the railway station security announcement. ("This is a security announcement. Please do not leave baggage unattended anywhere on the station. Any unattended articles may be removed and destroyed by the security services. If you see anything suspicious, please tell a member of staff. Remember, see it, say it, sorted." Back when the IRA were actually leaving bombs around, we only needed the italic bit.)

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#39

Post by randomdata »

spiggytopes wrote: post #8

'Your call is important to us.' Yeah, but clearly not important enough to justify hiring enough staff. This drives me crazy!

"Your call is important to us" but not "Your reason for calling is important to us". When the call is what is considered important, isn't prolonging the call the ideal?

Re: The Scourge of Airport Noise

#40

Post by ehnto »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #32
esteth wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would noise levels go up with densification? Densification allows you to reduce car dependence, and most city noise is from cars.

They go up if you build more densely and then hop in your car and drive an entire block to your destination, which some Americans insist on. But if you walk, bike, take transit, it gets better. People don't automatically adapt just because you build it differently and people typically have trouble imagining genuinely living differently without actually experiencing it.

I don't disagree entirely but if you genuinely build a low-car dependent neighborhood it will be too inconvenient to use your car for a short hop.

Speeds are way lower in dense neighborhoods, and no on street parking, so the noise is lower and it's a pain to pull your car in and out. Most noise is tire noise not exhaust (except your odd racer boy and their fart cannon exhaust)

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