this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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City people have fucked priorities. I moved to a large city from a small rural town, and it's nothing but noise 24/7.
People yelling, construction happening, people watching TV with the window open, babies crying, dogs barking, birds calling, cars constantly rumbling by and hitting potholes so loudly it sounds like an explosion, acs running, radio from businesses, crowd noises, hundreds of thousands of little bits of metal and plastic clinging and clanging and pinging and popping, shoes on concrete clicking and clacking, airplanes, conversations going on, gunshots and concerts and car alarms and sirens and parties and car radios all the way up and... Even in the dead of night when it's all died down, there is this constant low hum coming from the city.
But specifically fuck the people who play music on their phone i guess.
Not all noise is the same. White noise is easy to ignore but hearing half a conversation will stress out almost anyone.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hearing-just-one-half-of-a-conversation-is-really-really-annoying-2657804/
That's just how the brain is. A lot of city noise doesn't register as important (and it isn't), but overhearing half a conversation or random snippets of YouTube is annoying on a pretty deep level.
Cities aren't neccesarily loud. Cars are loud. 90% of the background noise would dissappear without cars.
The lack of noise during covid confirms this...evenings were super quiet. It was amazing. Now if only we can shut the city's power off a night so we can see the starts again.
also, when there's a snowstorm, it gets so quiet... I love it. although I'm sure its because of the lack of cars on the road AND snow piling up that absorbs sound instead of bouncing it around everywhere
You might feel differently in the middle of winter.
Most of the things they named weren't caused by cars.
Cars are far louder than most of the things on the list, only gunshots, airplanes and construction can even remotely exceed the level of noise pollution produced by a busy roadway.
It also turns out that a lot of the construction is due to cars in one way or another:
If you remove the cars and build with density in mind, a lot of that goes away.
90% of the things they named weren't cars but in practice if you actually compare cities with tons of cars vs ones with few you'll find that removing cars removes 90% of the noise.
Though It may be that not being bombarded with car noise makes people quieter as well (like how being in a loud crowd makes you want to speak up as well).
If a city was too quiet I'd go from being annoyed at all the noise to being paranoid that I'll be the one being too loud.
I live in a quiet neighborhood and it's totally not an issue. Even when I lived in an apartment in a quiet neighborhood, it still was largely a non-issue. Quiet is good, and it encourages landlords and homeowners to install proper sound-proofing to preserve it.
I live in a quiet neighborhood and it’s an issue for me.
Until my neighbors dogs start barking and then I’m annoyed again.
I do not like proximity to humans.
And that's why people do less yelling when there aren't cars around. That's why removing cars makes the other stuff quieter.
A lot of the things they name aren't inherently city noises, either, though. I don't live near any concert venues or airports, so I don't hear noise from either of those sources. You could live in the middle of nowhere, but if you live above the local bar, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it's loud on Friday and Saturday nights. Dogs and birds aren't exactly uniquely urban phenomena, and the sound of peoples' shoes on the sidewalk being a major source of noise just strikes me as absurd.
Yeah I don't know where they're coming from if they're not used to birds. I just got an impromptu concert by the wren who lives in my azalea and it was lovely.
Some of the non car things have to be louder because of cars. People yell louder when they have hearing damage from cars. Sirens need to be louder.
I don't know how people even live there. Like do they view a flat, open the window, be greeted by a cacophony of engines and sirens and helicopters and go "OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING! SARAH COME OVER HERE AND LISTEN TO THIS! I CAN BARELY HEAR MYSELF THINK! I'LL GIVE YOU TWO THOUSAND POUNDS A MONTH FOR IT!"
Mostly because it's not like whatever nonsense you just imagined.
But you do get the ability to walk everywhere you need and incredible amounts of culture. Food, music, art, history, social gatherings.
I don't know how anyone could live in the countryside, having to own a car and still having no infrastructure near you would be a hard no from me.
We close the window.
Marchetti's constant People spent on average 1 hour traveling to and from work.