5 ms·

Said someone that has never lived across the street from a elevated subway, on a street with a streetcar or near a bus stop.

ehnto 4y ago
I lived next to a freight line, never again. The corner was in my backyard. My comment is mostly about daily life outside of the house, and in a city center. So those moments on foot when you're out of the car. For life in the city, it's much more pleasant to be in a foot only or mixed traffic street, even with a train nearby. There's the inherent danger of fast cars operated by non-professionals that you perceive on foot as well as the noise, neither you really need to worry about for trains. In many cities trams can run through pedestrian areas with no barricades or grade separation because they are slower and predictable. You can run cars with no separation too if you slow them down enough, but more often they are set to incompatible speeds and as a pedestrian you have all the downsides of the cars as they pass through what should really be a pedestrian space in most city centers.
Tade0 4y ago
Or a cargo rail line. Or my favorite: historical buildings with equally historical distances between them. You could go deaf just from clapping your hands there.
giraffe_lady 4y ago
The saying isn't "only cars are loud" smartass. And I've lived across from from an elevated transit line in an otherwise carless city center and it was quieter than any north american subwayless city I've lived in so this isn't even true lol.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - dang 4y ago
      Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines? I realize the other comment was provocative, but provocation is not an ok reason to break the rules—it just leads to a downward spiral. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
      - giraffe_lady 4y ago
        Are they rules or guidelines? I know them and consider them when commenting, but they are phrased as requests and so I treat them as such.
        dang 4y ago
        I guess both? I use 'rules' and 'guidelines' more or less interchangeably in the HN context.
  - dang 4y ago
    Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines, such as with personal swipes and flamewar posts? You've done it a lot, we've asked you to stop, and you've continued to do it. Eventually we're going to have to ban you if you keep this up. I don't want to ban you, so if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
    - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
      >You've done it a lot, we've asked you to stop, I know this is probably boilerplate but if it's not I'd be really interested in seeing where you've called me out previously because as far as I know you haven't.
crote 4y ago
What is louder: 1 subway train, or 200 cars?
- KptMarchewa 4y ago
  More like 500-800 cars, given that one car carries 1.3 people on average.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  It's a different kind of sound. Tire noise is white noise (or at least, similar). My experience working in close proximity to a light rail line was 1) the train shakes the ground as it goes by, and 2) if you're near a corner, the squeaking is pretty loud. We have water sprayers in those areas to try and cut down on the howling, but it's not a panacea.
  - foepys 4y ago
    That's just bad design. There very quiet tram and railway designs available - they just cost a bit more money than the cheap 19th century designs that are still in place. Where I live in Germany the passenger trains (not even the tracks) got upgraded a few years ago and all those click-clack and screeching sounds are gone. What is left is a wooshing sound of the wind being pushed aside and the not-so-loud grinding sound of the thingy (collector?) that hits the power cable.
- NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
  1 subway train. In real tests done in NYC, the mean dbA for subway platforms was 81.1 vs. 76.0 for buses (which, by definition, run on the roads) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2707461/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2707461/
  - paradox460 4y ago
    And Bart makes the NYC subway sound quiet
sofixa 4y ago
Depends on the quality of the infrastructure. I live in a metropolitan area with elevated metros, suburban and long distance trains, cargo trains, trams (streetcars in american), etc. and it vastly differs. Paris line 6 makes a lot of noise due to the rubber tires and frequent turns (it's a semicircle line), meanwhile modern trams and modernised suburban rail (RER A) are barely audible even next to the tracks, let alone in buildings nearby.
dang 4y ago
Please don't cross into personal attack. You can make your substantive points about transportation infrastructure without that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

ehnto 4y ago

I lived next to a freight line, never again. The corner was in my backyard. My comment is mostly about daily life outside of the house, and in a city center. So those moments on foot when you're out of the car. For life in the city, it's much more pleasant to be in a foot only or mixed traffic street, even with a train nearby. There's the inherent danger of fast cars operated by non-professionals that you perceive on foot as well as the noise, neither you really need to worry about for trains. In many cities trams can run through pedestrian areas with no barricades or grade separation because they are slower and predictable. You can run cars with no separation too if you slow them down enough, but more often they are set to incompatible speeds and as a pedestrian you have all the downsides of the cars as they pass through what should really be a pedestrian space in most city centers.

Tade0 4y ago

Or a cargo rail line. Or my favorite: historical buildings with equally historical distances between them. You could go deaf just from clapping your hands there.

giraffe_lady 4y ago

The saying isn't "only cars are loud" smartass. And I've lived across from from an elevated transit line in an otherwise carless city center and it was quieter than any north american subwayless city I've lived in so this isn't even true lol.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago
[flagged]
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - dang 4y ago
    Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines? I realize the other comment was provocative, but provocation is not an ok reason to break the rules—it just leads to a downward spiral. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
    - giraffe_lady 4y ago
      Are they rules or guidelines? I know them and consider them when commenting, but they are phrased as requests and so I treat them as such.
      - dang 4y ago
        I guess both? I use 'rules' and 'guidelines' more or less interchangeably in the HN context.
- dang 4y ago
  Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines, such as with personal swipes and flamewar posts? You've done it a lot, we've asked you to stop, and you've continued to do it. Eventually we're going to have to ban you if you keep this up. I don't want to ban you, so if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    >You've done it a lot, we've asked you to stop, I know this is probably boilerplate but if it's not I'd be really interested in seeing where you've called me out previously because as far as I know you haven't.

crote 4y ago

What is louder: 1 subway train, or 200 cars?

KptMarchewa 4y ago
More like 500-800 cars, given that one car carries 1.3 people on average.
rootusrootus 4y ago
It's a different kind of sound. Tire noise is white noise (or at least, similar). My experience working in close proximity to a light rail line was 1) the train shakes the ground as it goes by, and 2) if you're near a corner, the squeaking is pretty loud. We have water sprayers in those areas to try and cut down on the howling, but it's not a panacea.
- foepys 4y ago
  That's just bad design. There very quiet tram and railway designs available - they just cost a bit more money than the cheap 19th century designs that are still in place. Where I live in Germany the passenger trains (not even the tracks) got upgraded a few years ago and all those click-clack and screeching sounds are gone. What is left is a wooshing sound of the wind being pushed aside and the not-so-loud grinding sound of the thingy (collector?) that hits the power cable.
NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
1 subway train. In real tests done in NYC, the mean dbA for subway platforms was 81.1 vs. 76.0 for buses (which, by definition, run on the roads) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2707461/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2707461/
- paradox460 4y ago
  And Bart makes the NYC subway sound quiet

sofixa 4y ago

Depends on the quality of the infrastructure. I live in a metropolitan area with elevated metros, suburban and long distance trains, cargo trains, trams (streetcars in american), etc. and it vastly differs. Paris line 6 makes a lot of noise due to the rubber tires and frequent turns (it's a semicircle line), meanwhile modern trams and modernised suburban rail (RER A) are barely audible even next to the tracks, let alone in buildings nearby.

dang 4y ago

Please don't cross into personal attack. You can make your substantive points about transportation infrastructure without that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html