Noise pollution hurts the heart • Hacker News Board

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#201

Post by x3iv130f » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:24 PM UTC

vladvasiliu wrote: post #183

belly_joe wrote: post #2

I feel the sound -> stress connection palpably. Especially sudden loud noises like a horn honking cause me to feel upset for a long while after being startled. Seems like a convincing argument to me for car-free spaces, although honestly I just wish we had stronger social norms against unnecessarily using a car's horn.

This was interesting for me, too. At the end of 2017 I moved into a new apartment, with a great view on a very busy road. I immediately felt much more "off". Maybe stressed in a way, but since I'm not usually the stressed kind, I had a hard time identifying the feeling. At around the same time, the AC in the office developed a constant hum. This drove me nuts. When I went to my parents' house in the suburbs, I could…

It was a culture shock for me as a Californian to visit Tokyo. In my mind cities are dirty, loud, and dangerous.

Tokyo despite being one of the densest and busiest cities in first world countries is incredibly clean, quiet, and safe.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#202

Post by asdffdsa » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:28 PM UTC

pivo wrote: post #130

asdffdsa wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorcycles reduce congestion and emit less carbon emissions than SUVs, sedans, trucks, etc. Sure, loud exhausts shouldn't be used, but banning them without addressing the problem of incompetent drivers only further encourages a bygone car culture that is already arguably too pervasive in our society. As a side note, this line of thinking "[it infuriates others so] maybe you shouldn't do it" leans totalitarian which…

I'm not suggesting a ban on motorcycles. I'm a motorcyclist myself but I use the stock exhausts because they are quiet. I do want to ban excessively loud exhausts, or more simply, I want the police to enforce the existing noise pollution laws. I think that an important part of being a decent human being living in close proximity to other human beings is recognizing and limiting one's own anti-social behavior. I hope…

Agreed on the loud exhaust ban, thanks for clarifying

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#203

Post by TylerE » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:32 PM UTC

74d-fe6-2c6 wrote: post #46

centimeter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s unfortunate that society has become pacified to a point that people generally will not use e.g. minor equipment sabotage to deal with nuisances like this that otherwise take excessive bureaucratic nonsense to combat.

you have to fight an asshole like an asshole - few people are able to pull this off. most people prefer to suffer and pretend to themselves to be "tolerant" instead of just standing up for themselves.

Then you just end up with a world full of assholes. Not sure that's "winning".

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#204

Post by zemvpferreira » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:33 PM UTC

bsd44 wrote: post #11

I used to live in a flat with a window onto the main road and I would violently wake up 4-6x every night and my heart rate would be through the roof. It's not easy to go back to sleep after that. I can get used to consistent noise and filter it out, but I can never get used to an extremely loud noise coming rapidly out of dead silence. Those were mostly custom exhausts, motorcycles and sirens. If I really needed slee…

I'm sorry you went through that awful situation but... was there anything stopping you from wearing earplugs?

I religiously wear the best earplugs and face mask I can find to sleep. Even in controlled environments, they make a hell of a difference.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#205

Post by chrbr » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:33 PM UTC

johnchristopher wrote: post #182

dazc wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's the lack of consideration that annoys you more than the noise itself?

Definitely, should have written it down in my comment rather than describing my experience. This is a huge aspect of what grinds my gears. But there's also some speech patterns that get on my nerves in public transport and it's not really (at least most of the time) a lack of consideration from the people though (but it happens way less often).

Yeah, that's the part that gets me too - the lack of consideration. I live near a hospital and have zero problem with the near-constant sirens, but people gunning their loud engines at stoplights will cause me to rage.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#206

Post by kiliantics » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:36 PM UTC

dgrcode wrote: post #118

I lived in NY for 3 months and the amount of noise pollution there was insane. The one that I really couldn't believe was the J train on Brooklyn's Broadway. You could be yelling at someone 3ft/1m apart and they couldn't hear you because of the train noise. I wonder if New Yorkers realise how absolutely crazy that is.

As someone who lives in NY for 10 years, I don't know how I wasn't so aware before but I've lately become acutely conscious of how we are surrounded by near constant extreme noise pollution levels. Maybe most people just exist in this the way I used to, not thinking about it, it's so normalised that people can't imagine how it could be any different.

The worst to me is that people have internalised this so far that they don't see any problem in contributing to this pollution themselves. Just a few weeks ago, someone on my block wanted to move their car at 4 am on like a Wednesday for whatever reason. Unfortunately for this person, someone else had double parked next to their car overnight (a chronically common issue in Brooklyn where I live for some reason). This neighbour somehow thought it would be perfectly reasonable to start honking constantly to alert the person who should move their car to let them out. At 4 am. When they would obviously be waking up many other people nearby that had nothing to do with the issue. In my 10 years here, that level of inconsideration was still pretty shocking to me.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#207

Post by pims » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

vladvasiliu wrote: post #194

pims wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lucky them, here in France we're probably far from ever seeing such laws given the high percentage of bikers who simply don't care about making harmful levels of noise even right next to small kids. I've considered reaching out to my neighborhood council about it, but I'll probably have moved again due to motorcycles before it goes up to the city/county/department/region...

Well, there actually are laws in France regarding noise. I don't remember what the numbers are, but technically most of the loud pipes on motorcycles are illegal. The registration has a line for the noise generated by the bike under certain conditions, and if you modify the bike (usually the muffler) such that the noise is above that level, your bike is illegal. The issue, of course, is that there's no enforcement. M…

Interesting, I had a look and it seems like it should be limited to 80dB for the biggest motorcycles. But that's when measuring in specific conditions in a lab, so there's a more "practical" (ahem) limit that depends on the model but is always at harmful levels (>80dB) and is measured when the engine is only at 50% of its maximum power.

So we have a badly designed law which is, as you mentioned, not even enforced. Sounds like France indeed.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#208

Post by nescioquid » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

reddit_clone wrote: post #144

josefresco wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My understanding is folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often." As a member of a motorcycle riding family in the US (I don't ride, but several close family members do) this is hilariously wrong. They like it loud because they like the sound, and they like to get noticed. I say hilariously because I constantly joke with my family members about how silly the bike cu…

I wouldn't dismiss that claim out of hand. Whenever I am stuck in stop and go traffic, I can hear/feel lane splitting harleys coming from way behind. Sportbikes just whiz by, making you jump, especially if you were thinking of changing lanes. I don't believe 'loud pipes save lives' is completely bogus.

If it were really about saving lives, then the rational thing would be to use a safer form of transportation. Hazards like pot holes and debris are unmitigated by the sound of the vehicle, while other types of vehicles can have safety features a bike can't.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#209

Post by Arrath » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 9:56 PM UTC

Guest42 wrote: post #15

belly_joe wrote: post #2

I feel the sound -> stress connection palpably. Especially sudden loud noises like a horn honking cause me to feel upset for a long while after being startled. Seems like a convincing argument to me for car-free spaces, although honestly I just wish we had stronger social norms against unnecessarily using a car's horn.

Agreed. I also don’t like it when locking a car via remote causes the horn to go off and in order to make sure people hit it multiple times.

I turn off the audible alert on lock. Flashing the lights is plenty, why be obnoxious and add noise to the soundscape? I can hear the locks click, anyway.

Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart

#210

Post by wing-_-nuts » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 10:14 PM UTC

This makes me wonder about 'white noise'? I finally caved and bought a non looping white noise machine after years of being woken up by car engines, ambulances, god forsaken LEAF BLOWERS cranking up at 7am every morning. Now, I notice I often sleep until my alarm.

I would think that constant white noise would have a positive, or at least no negative impact but I have no evidence, and googling only pulls up intermittent noise studies.