Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud

Urban noise is a common problem, and the vast majority of it is created by motor vehicles. Noise is far too often dismissed as a minor nuisance, rather than the legitimate health issue that it is.

The book "Curbing Traffic" has a chapter about the health impacts of noise pollution. I explore the research in the book, and visit Delft, the city that is highlighted in the book as being a shining example of what can happen when noise pollution is taken seriously.

This video explores the problem that farting cars, farting motorcycles, and farting mopeds create in our cities.

Curbing Traffic
Melissa & Chris Bruntlett

NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel):

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Guidelines for Community Noise
World Health Organization

Environmental noise
European Environment Agency

Burden of disease from environmental noise
Quantification of healthy life years lost in Europe

Calculate decibel level changes
Sengpiel Audio

Cairo ranked second noisiest city in the world

Getting Around in Egypt #4: Cairo by Taxi
Chris Naunton (YouTube/CC BY)

NOISE LEVELS AND THE SOURCES OF NOISE POLLUTION IN KARACHI
Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association

Karachi in 5 minutes
Kashan Ilyas (YouTube/CC BY)

The Adverse Effects of Environmental Noise Exposure on Oxidative Stress and Cardiovascular Risk
Antioxid Redox Signal

The Environmental Quality of City Streets: The Residents' Viewpoint
Journal of the American Institute of Planners (Volume 38, 1972 - Issue 2)

Weg Geluidhinder

Phoenixstraat in Delft, 2004
By M.Minderhoud - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Delft Markt 1970s
Serc

Results of the King Street Transit Pilot

Experimental Study for Estimating Capacity of Cycle Lanes

NACTO - Designing to Move People

Amsterdam Geluidskaart (Noise Map)

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Chapters

0:00 Intro
0:13 Cities are loud
0:36 The noise problem
1:33 Health implications of noise
2:43 How drivers create noise
3:21 Urban noise is not inevitable
4:08 Travel to Delft
4:51 Delft is really quiet
6:01 Reducing car traffic
7:02 Getting away from the noise
7:37 How cars create noise
8:12 Slow the cars
8:33 Quiet asphalt
9:24 Soundproofing
9:39 Delft summary & returning to Amsterdam
10:09 Measuring bicycle noise
11:05 Measuring car noise
11:20 Measuring moped noise
12:00 Measuring motorcycle noise
13:03 Electric vehicles
14:21 Moving people quietly
15:19 Why do we allow this?
15:47 What Amsterdam does about noise
16:17 Final thoughts
16:35 Patreon shout-out
16:47 Outro

[NotJustBikes]

Curbing Traffic is a great book, and I can definitely recommend it:


Noise pollution is only one chapter of the book. The rest is filled with so many other reasons why we need fewer cars in our cities.

[leerose]

You might honestly be the greatest tourism ad for the Netherlands.

[ChineseCookingDemystified]

"Car Horns should be just as loud on the inside of the car than the outside". YES. I've been saying this forever. Such a simple change that would remove *so* much needless honking.

[danielbum]

I don't think anything drives the point home quite as well as showing a cozy looking town square with people strolling about and sitting outside cafés only to cut to how it used to look 20 years ago when it was a bloody fricking car park lmao

[hopoffz]

The most astounding thing to me, which made me genuinely tear up a bit, was when you walked out of the train station and instead of seeing a parking lot, it opens straight to a sidewalk of sorts. Never in my american life have I seen anything of the sort

[nashaatzakariya]

As someone who moved from Cairo, Egypt to a rural town in Minnesota, I can tell you that having low noise and clean air is worth so much more than people think.

[logbinder]

I always thought I disliked Warsaw, until I got a pair of noise-reducing headphones and suddenly walking in the city was amazing, I actually thought to myself this city is nice. I think noise pollution is a major contributor to how much we do not enjoy our cities.

[BooBaddyBig]

I once stopped at the edge of a wind farm on a main road to hear the outrageously loud noise critics said they cause. But all I could hear was traffic noise from the road!

[veggiet]

I remember one of the best things about lockdown was going outside in the middle of the day, and it was silent. Not just quiet, nothing was going on, made for very very pleasant walks

[Nick-kzdg]

"This man said that a cycle path would spoil the village-like atmosphere of Chiswick, but it was hard to hear him over the roar of traffic." - Jay Foreman

[MartijnPennings]

The grass between the tramrails are awesome! They not only reduce sound from the trams, it obviously looks better than asphalt, but also reduces the temperature on a hot day and soaks up lots of water on rainy days and even reduces dust in the air. The biggest reason that most tramrails don't have grass is because they're also used by other traffic, most importantly emergency vehicles like ambulances, police and fire trucks.

[thatcarguyUZ]

I am a car enthusiast so yes, “me like car go vroom vroom” when I go to a racetrack or a car show. But in every day life, “me like quiet, shh shh”.

[ChrisTooley]

Infuriatingly, I cannot hear what the silence is like because of traffic literally 20ft away from me right now

[mkl]

This series has really opened my eyes to how far behind the USA is. The sad part is that it really could be so much better, and there are plenty of places to model from. No place is perfect, but quality of life is everything.

[amcaesar]

My neighbor has an e-snorfiets, and the most noise it makes is the chirp when the console starts up. It's kind of a miracle.

[Habiyeru]

The one thing that shocked me most about Tokyo was just how quiet it would get in the city center. My family and I stayed at an AirBnB about 300 meters away from Shibuya Crossing, and we were amazed by how serenely quiet it was. You could never have guessed that the world's busiest intersection was just a short walk away.

[jacknisbet]

Note about the beginning of this video. For some (particularly neurodivergent individuals), you don't get "used to" the continuous sound; it actually gets worse. Those with sensory issues/disabilities (i.e., autism, auditory processing, ADHD) often are forced to wear ear protectors/mufflers just to function, and those aids become even more necessary in an urban environment. I personally know that I've had to put on some sort of noise blocker at volumes as low as 70 decibels, so living in a place like the city in Pakistan mentioned would be literal hell. It's not like people who live in the city always have a choice, either; commuting into the city for whatever reason may not be an option. Essentially, anyone, disabled or not, should not be forced to use aids in the place they live.

[MxSheep]

10:43 "A group of cyclers riding and talking is about 65 Dba which is about as loud as a normal conversation" [..] "65 is about the level that is becoming irritating" Thank you for letting me finally find out why conversations are irritating!

[Freekymoho]

"When you step out of the train in Delft, you're immediately struck by how quiet it is"

Blaring tinnitus: "its free real estate"

[eldritchteletubby]

As someone with sensory dysfunction, cities are physically painful for me due to the noise. Delft sounds like paradise.