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>widespread traffic noise, for the first time in almost a century Well, in cities horses and horse driven carriages on pebbles/stone pavements weren't that muc

by jaclaz 7y ago

>widespread traffic noise, for the first time in almost a century Well, in cities horses and horse driven carriages on pebbles/stone pavements weren't that much silent even before that. Admittedly there were much less vehicles overall, but the sound of the horseshoes is very loud, to which you add the wooden (but usually with a steel ring) wheels, possibly the drivers shouting at their horses and what not and I don't think that a street in - say - central New York in 1899 was particularly silent. Compare with (scroll down to find "THE HORSELESS CARRIAGE AND PUBLIC HEALTH": https://archive.org/stream/scientific-american-1899-02-18/scientific-american-v80-n07-1899-02-18_djvu.txt https://archive.org/stream/scientific-american-1899-02-18/sc... >The noise and clatter which makes conversation al- most impossible on many streets of New York at the present time will be done away with, for horseless vehi- cles of all kinds are always noiseless or nearly so. This question of noise has much to do with the general health of the community. Specialists have many times expressed an opinion that the nervous diseases which exist in the city are aggravated, if not caused, in many cases, by noises incident to a great city's traffic. The bells of the new vehicles will of course be somewhat annoying at first.

flaque 7y ago
This is a "whataboutism," the point was that we could have much less noise in towns and cities, which would be nice.
- jaclaz 7y ago
  Well, my point was simply that the same wish has been made - almost to the letter - when the horseless carriages were introduced, or - if you prefer - that when the electric cars will be the only vehicles around we will have finally some less noise after several centuries, but the noise was not "introduced" by cars, and as a matter of fact 19th centuries city streets were likely as noisy or worse.

by jaclaz 7y ago

flaque 7y ago

This is a "whataboutism," the point was that we could have much less noise in towns and cities, which would be nice.

jaclaz 7y ago
Well, my point was simply that the same wish has been made - almost to the letter - when the horseless carriages were introduced, or - if you prefer - that when the electric cars will be the only vehicles around we will have finally some less noise after several centuries, but the noise was not "introduced" by cars, and as a matter of fact 19th centuries city streets were likely as noisy or worse.