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This is a pretty short Wikipedia article. It's the the hum of tires on a nearby, busy highway/freeway that tend to make most of the noise. How did they intend o

This is a pretty short Wikipedia article. It's the the hum of tires on a nearby, busy highway/freeway that tend to make most of the noise. How did they intend on "controlling" the noise from vehicles without completely removing busy roads from urban areas?

alextheparrot 6y ago
Some freeways, especially near more affluent communities, do have sound padding walls to help mitigate sound. Presumably a regulatory body would be advocating for making those part of the code, alongside helping developing new technology. There was a good 99% Invisible recently on those headlight reflectors embedded in the asphalt, that’s a good example of where constraints (No lights during WW2 for fear of bombing) created the atmosphere for innovation. Regulations can artificially create those constraints as well.
tirpen 6y ago
What's wrong with removing busy roads from urban areas? The idea has been tried many times in many European cities and it has been proven to be an excellent idea almost every time. Making city centers into pedestrian zones with bike paths and a few bus lanes passing through does wonders for sound levels, safety, makes getting around easier, improves air quality and make the city centers more alive and pleasant. [Here is a report by the European Commission](https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/pdf/streets_people.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/pdf/streets_people.pdf) that analyses the effects of reclaiming streets from cats in eight different cities.
- burgerzzz 6y ago
  They've been making progress very slow progress in downtown Portland in promoting some of these things, which I appreciate frankly. But I really wonder what you do with the suburbs. Perhaps, rapid urbanization? But that may push more people to suburbanizing even more, and you need these arterial roads to get traffic between the suburban and downtown/more condensed areas. I think it would be interesting to investigate the motives for suburban <-> urban area commutes and try to eliminate them first.
throwaway189262 6y ago
It's semi trucks. Most of the tire and wind noise from highways is semis. And maybe 90% of road wear. They aren't forced to pay for any of this, so semis end up subsidized heavily by taxpayers
- rhacker 6y ago
  I don't disagree - but we would be subsidizing them anyway through higher cost of goods - since the only reason they are running around on the freeways is to deliver shit.

alextheparrot 6y ago

Some freeways, especially near more affluent communities, do have sound padding walls to help mitigate sound. Presumably a regulatory body would be advocating for making those part of the code, alongside helping developing new technology. There was a good 99% Invisible recently on those headlight reflectors embedded in the asphalt, that’s a good example of where constraints (No lights during WW2 for fear of bombing) created the atmosphere for innovation. Regulations can artificially create those constraints as well.

tirpen 6y ago

What's wrong with removing busy roads from urban areas? The idea has been tried many times in many European cities and it has been proven to be an excellent idea almost every time. Making city centers into pedestrian zones with bike paths and a few bus lanes passing through does wonders for sound levels, safety, makes getting around easier, improves air quality and make the city centers more alive and pleasant. [Here is a report by the European Commission](https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/pdf/streets_people.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/pdf/streets_people.pdf) that analyses the effects of reclaiming streets from cats in eight different cities.

burgerzzz 6y ago
They've been making progress very slow progress in downtown Portland in promoting some of these things, which I appreciate frankly. But I really wonder what you do with the suburbs. Perhaps, rapid urbanization? But that may push more people to suburbanizing even more, and you need these arterial roads to get traffic between the suburban and downtown/more condensed areas. I think it would be interesting to investigate the motives for suburban <-> urban area commutes and try to eliminate them first.

throwaway189262 6y ago

It's semi trucks. Most of the tire and wind noise from highways is semis. And maybe 90% of road wear. They aren't forced to pay for any of this, so semis end up subsidized heavily by taxpayers

rhacker 6y ago
I don't disagree - but we would be subsidizing them anyway through higher cost of goods - since the only reason they are running around on the freeways is to deliver shit.