5 ms·

Standard passenger cars are essentially silent compared to trucks, busses and trains, unless you are right up next to traffic and they are going over 40ish whic

Standard passenger cars are essentially silent compared to trucks, busses and trains, unless you are right up next to traffic and they are going over 40ish which doesn’t happen often in a city.

fnord77 5y ago
depends on the age and condition of the car. car mufflers get louder over the years as the inner baffles rust and burn out.
- porknubbins 5y ago
  I believe this but in a major city most cars are new enough to not be loud. I’ve got an almost 20 year old truck that is older than average and not loud, and I’ve never really heard of mufflers rusting here either.
crooked-v 5y ago
Of course, part of the issue there is the many, many SUVs built as truck derivatives.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  He likely means medium and heavy trucks.
  - porknubbins 5y ago
    Yeah meant commercial trucks. Recent pickups aren’t that bad unless they have some horrible sport package or aftermarket exhaust.
loloquwowndueo 5y ago
You say that because you haven’t heard the din of a congested street where cars are moving at an average of 5-10 km/h, with all the engines stop-and-going and the horns blaring (people are desperate to move) in large cities. Can be heard from hundreds of meters away.
- pseudo0 5y ago
  When I lived near a busy roadway, the worst offenders by far were cars and motorbikes deliberately designed to be obnoxious. Regular traffic noise could be tuned out pretty easily, but then you'd get some jackass who deliberately removed their muffler revving their engine at midnight... Unfortunately people who do this are very rarely punished beyond maybe the occasional traffic ticket.
perl4ever 5y ago
>which doesn’t happen often in a city I live in a city a few hundred feet from a highway where people are going well over 40, possibly as high as 70. Geometrically, most of a city can't be in the center, no matter the size or arrangement. I'm not sure how this can be overlooked, but it seemingly is, a lot. The edge of the city is next to the suburbs, and that perimeter should be longer than any inner contour, right?
dalanmiller 5y ago
Even at that speed the engine noise is still non-negligible.
boardwaalk 5y ago
What's the point of this comparison, though? They're still loud. Cities will still be loud, because of cars, even if everything is electric. Road noise (rushing air, rolling tires) is road noise. I live ~2000 feet from a highway and the noise is significant, and I'm not talking idiots with straight pipes. It's the constant humming and thrum of the vehicles.
- porknubbins 5y ago
  My point was this sounds like (I didnt watch) another “squeeze the individual who already has a tiny footprint instead of the biggest offender because they are harder to fix”. I guess air noise from 70+ mph traffic will always be loud, but I was commenting on cities where most highways are either walled, elevated or otherwise separated. Living 2000 feet from an open highway sounds like rural or suburban to me.
lm28469 5y ago
Have you ever walked in a city ? I live in the center of Berlin and I can hear cars all day and most of the night even though the closest street is ~100 meters away, behind a huge building and limited 30 mph. It's a constant hum and I can guarantee you most of it is from passenger cars A simple test is to go for a walk in the woods, the loudest noises are tree branches quietly snapping under your feet and the wind on leaves, going back to the city is torture after that. If I'm not listening to music I use earplugs
- porknubbins 5y ago
  Ok when you’re outside you can hear large number of anything. I think thats just physics of sound. I was basing my comparison on living in an big city apartment near ish to a busy road and the only noises that ever bothered me inside were trucks shaking the ground, truck engines, air brakes and motorcycles revving. I literally could not detect passenger vehicle traffic without going outside so I couldn’t even tell if the street was busy.

Standard passenger cars are essentially silent compared to trucks, busses and trains, unless you are right up next to traffic and they are going over 40ish which doesn’t happen often in a city.

fnord77 5y ago

depends on the age and condition of the car. car mufflers get louder over the years as the inner baffles rust and burn out.

porknubbins 5y ago
I believe this but in a major city most cars are new enough to not be loud. I’ve got an almost 20 year old truck that is older than average and not loud, and I’ve never really heard of mufflers rusting here either.

crooked-v 5y ago

Of course, part of the issue there is the many, many SUVs built as truck derivatives.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
He likely means medium and heavy trucks.
- porknubbins 5y ago
  Yeah meant commercial trucks. Recent pickups aren’t that bad unless they have some horrible sport package or aftermarket exhaust.

loloquwowndueo 5y ago

You say that because you haven’t heard the din of a congested street where cars are moving at an average of 5-10 km/h, with all the engines stop-and-going and the horns blaring (people are desperate to move) in large cities. Can be heard from hundreds of meters away.

pseudo0 5y ago
When I lived near a busy roadway, the worst offenders by far were cars and motorbikes deliberately designed to be obnoxious. Regular traffic noise could be tuned out pretty easily, but then you'd get some jackass who deliberately removed their muffler revving their engine at midnight... Unfortunately people who do this are very rarely punished beyond maybe the occasional traffic ticket.

perl4ever 5y ago

>which doesn’t happen often in a city I live in a city a few hundred feet from a highway where people are going well over 40, possibly as high as 70. Geometrically, most of a city can't be in the center, no matter the size or arrangement. I'm not sure how this can be overlooked, but it seemingly is, a lot. The edge of the city is next to the suburbs, and that perimeter should be longer than any inner contour, right?

dalanmiller 5y ago

Even at that speed the engine noise is still non-negligible.

boardwaalk 5y ago

What's the point of this comparison, though? They're still loud. Cities will still be loud, because of cars, even if everything is electric. Road noise (rushing air, rolling tires) is road noise. I live ~2000 feet from a highway and the noise is significant, and I'm not talking idiots with straight pipes. It's the constant humming and thrum of the vehicles.

porknubbins 5y ago
My point was this sounds like (I didnt watch) another “squeeze the individual who already has a tiny footprint instead of the biggest offender because they are harder to fix”. I guess air noise from 70+ mph traffic will always be loud, but I was commenting on cities where most highways are either walled, elevated or otherwise separated. Living 2000 feet from an open highway sounds like rural or suburban to me.

lm28469 5y ago

Have you ever walked in a city ? I live in the center of Berlin and I can hear cars all day and most of the night even though the closest street is ~100 meters away, behind a huge building and limited 30 mph. It's a constant hum and I can guarantee you most of it is from passenger cars A simple test is to go for a walk in the woods, the loudest noises are tree branches quietly snapping under your feet and the wind on leaves, going back to the city is torture after that. If I'm not listening to music I use earplugs

porknubbins 5y ago
Ok when you’re outside you can hear large number of anything. I think thats just physics of sound. I was basing my comparison on living in an big city apartment near ish to a busy road and the only noises that ever bothered me inside were trucks shaking the ground, truck engines, air brakes and motorcycles revving. I literally could not detect passenger vehicle traffic without going outside so I couldn’t even tell if the street was busy.