3 ms·

The city being so quiet also means that a lot of people aren't there to actually see it.

standardUser 6y ago
Sort of. People aren't very loud. Cars are very loud, especially their horns and the loud beeps from locking/unlocking with a clicker. Amsterdam is a good example of a bustling city that is relatively quiet.
- andai 6y ago
  I was being kept awake by loud traffic the other day and suddenly realized, in my lifetime, that sound will probably go away, replaced by quiet electromotors -- along with the smell!
  - wffurr 6y ago
    It could be replaced today largely by bicycles. $30,000 electric cars and charging infrastructure not required.
  - duxup 6y ago
    > along with the smell! I grew up in rural US. I took a few trips to Europe and to date the smell of car / bus exhaust reminds me of European cities. It's not a pleasant smell but the memories are pleasant. Weird that in the US I just never associated big cities that I visited here with it as much I did with my trips to Europe.
    - ben7799 6y ago
      This is cause the cars are actually cleaner here... Europe is getting over its experiment with Diesel after the whole VW-gate thing, for years they were driving diesels that were polluting more than gas/petrol cars in the US were allowed to.
    - akgerber 6y ago
      Europe, for decades, promoted diesel cars for the sake of fuel efficiency in the erroneous belief that effective car-scale emissions filtration could be developed. The US didn't, and gasoline car exhaust, while still terrible for human health, is much better than diesel exhaust. This has improved dramatically in recent years with truck/bus filtration systems, electrification, and car bans (or dirty car bans) in European city centers.
  - jschwartzi 6y ago
    Now that the din of the freeway has been reduced here it's been replaced by the sound of everyone's noisy exhaust. I'm debating sitting on the front porch at night with a paintball marker and firing away at anyone with a loud exhaust.
  - dmitrygr 6y ago
    ha, if only, but no: https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/16/13651106/electric-car-noise-nhtsa-rule-blind-pedestrian-safety https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/16/13651106/electric-car-no...
jeffbee 6y ago
For American cities it means that people who live in the suburbs aren't driving all over our city centers all day long. I don't know what it means for London.
- duxup 6y ago
  I think there is a yang to that yin in that without folks from the burbs coming in, those city centers might not be what they are today after a while... Sometimes I wonder if folks worried about 'those people from the suburbs' coming in would just result in cities being slightly more dense ... suburbs.
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    If the "yin" is people from Blackhawk drive on elevated freeways to their jobs in San Francisco and the "yang" is that kids from Oakland lose 10 years of life expectancy from asthma, I'm not sure that adds up to harmonious symbiosis.
    - duxup 6y ago
      It probably isn't, but I suspect the result I describe would be much the same.
  - akgerber 6y ago
    People from the suburbs are great to have in the city if they're people. It's just that their cars are deadly and a massive waste of public space. Rail remains the best solution for this, as it will be again when we're on the other side of this pandemic.
    - duxup 6y ago
      Yeah I'm all for giving folks as many efficient ways to get into a city. I can't wait for a train to be built near me.

Sort of. People aren't very loud. Cars are very loud, especially their horns and the loud beeps from locking/unlocking with a clicker. Amsterdam is a good example of a bustling city that is relatively quiet.

andai 6y ago
I was being kept awake by loud traffic the other day and suddenly realized, in my lifetime, that sound will probably go away, replaced by quiet electromotors -- along with the smell!
- wffurr 6y ago
  It could be replaced today largely by bicycles. $30,000 electric cars and charging infrastructure not required.
- duxup 6y ago
  > along with the smell! I grew up in rural US. I took a few trips to Europe and to date the smell of car / bus exhaust reminds me of European cities. It's not a pleasant smell but the memories are pleasant. Weird that in the US I just never associated big cities that I visited here with it as much I did with my trips to Europe.
  - ben7799 6y ago
    This is cause the cars are actually cleaner here... Europe is getting over its experiment with Diesel after the whole VW-gate thing, for years they were driving diesels that were polluting more than gas/petrol cars in the US were allowed to.
  - akgerber 6y ago
    Europe, for decades, promoted diesel cars for the sake of fuel efficiency in the erroneous belief that effective car-scale emissions filtration could be developed. The US didn't, and gasoline car exhaust, while still terrible for human health, is much better than diesel exhaust. This has improved dramatically in recent years with truck/bus filtration systems, electrification, and car bans (or dirty car bans) in European city centers.
- jschwartzi 6y ago
  Now that the din of the freeway has been reduced here it's been replaced by the sound of everyone's noisy exhaust. I'm debating sitting on the front porch at night with a paintball marker and firing away at anyone with a loud exhaust.
- dmitrygr 6y ago
  ha, if only, but no: https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/16/13651106/electric-car-noise-nhtsa-rule-blind-pedestrian-safety https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/16/13651106/electric-car-no...

jeffbee 6y ago

For American cities it means that people who live in the suburbs aren't driving all over our city centers all day long. I don't know what it means for London.

duxup 6y ago
I think there is a yang to that yin in that without folks from the burbs coming in, those city centers might not be what they are today after a while... Sometimes I wonder if folks worried about 'those people from the suburbs' coming in would just result in cities being slightly more dense ... suburbs.
- jeffbee 6y ago
  If the "yin" is people from Blackhawk drive on elevated freeways to their jobs in San Francisco and the "yang" is that kids from Oakland lose 10 years of life expectancy from asthma, I'm not sure that adds up to harmonious symbiosis.
  - duxup 6y ago
    It probably isn't, but I suspect the result I describe would be much the same.
- akgerber 6y ago
  People from the suburbs are great to have in the city if they're people. It's just that their cars are deadly and a massive waste of public space. Rail remains the best solution for this, as it will be again when we're on the other side of this pandemic.
  - duxup 6y ago
    Yeah I'm all for giving folks as many efficient ways to get into a city. I can't wait for a train to be built near me.