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Europe is definitely not a monolith with regards to noise. Loudest place I’ve ever lived is Barcelona. Was a one-way side street but the scooter noise was still
by cogogo 3y ago
Europe is definitely not a monolith with regards to noise. Loudest place I’ve ever lived is Barcelona. Was a one-way side street but the scooter noise was still insane. Cars make a lot of noise but at least in my city-living experience across both Europe and US people at bar closing times, parties, construction, scooters and motorcycles are far worse for noise affecting quality of life. Also remembering what it was like to live next to the L in Chicago forever ago… that was loud.
- alwayslikethis 3y agoCars have more trouble going fast through narrow streets, so they go slower. Motorcycles and scooters in the city tends to have small engines for fuel economy and price, so they have to run at much higher RPMs compared to cars for the same speed. They also have much less ability to dampen the sound because the exhaust system can only be so long. Then there are people who purposely put loud pipes on. They are better space and efficiency wise, but in terms of low speed noise they sure are worse. Two wheeled vehicles don't tend to encourage the kind of space waste in north american suburbia though, so I think they are still preferable.
- mcv 3y agoWhat's really helping is that scooters/mopeds are increasingly electric, and some of the people that used to ride noisy scooters now ride e-bikes. The sooner we get rid of those fuming noise buckets, the better.
- l72 3y agoI was surprised in how much Beijing changed from 2010 to 2020. In 2010 it was loud scooters every where, and by 2020, it was a majority of electric scooters / e-bikes, which has made a big different in some parts of the city.