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Fortunately this goes away as more cars go electric. Next!

midoridensha 3y ago
Unfortunately, it doesn't change at all with electric cars, because most of the noise comes from tires, not engine exhaust. Next!
- Symbiote 3y ago
  Some measurements: https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8?t=609&feature=shared https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8?t=609&feature=shared The noisiest vehicles in the centre of Copenhagen seem to be diesel delivery vans, so it's a decent improvement as these are swapped for electric ones.
  - stouset 3y ago
    The center of Copenhagen has very different traffic composition than essentially every American city.
    - Symbiote 3y ago
      The context was "densification if done right could even make things quieter", and Copenhagen — at least the centre and inner districts — is generally considered to be doing things right. Slowly driven electric cars are slightly quieter than slowly driven petrol/diesel cars, but the greater improvement is the slowly driven vans, trucks, refuse lorries and so on. (Especially the electric refuse lorries! No more loud diesel thing emptying bins at silly-in-the-morning.)
      - stouset 3y ago
        > The context was "densification if done right could even make things quieter", and Copenhagen — at least the centre and inner districts — is generally considered to be doing things right. Which is precisely why their traffic composition is different than that of American cities. I absolutely believe that the lowest-hanging fruit in many of Copenhagen’s streets are diesel delivery trucks. I do not believe that American cities have adopted the kind of forward-thinking policies that would have reduced other sources of traffic noise to the point where those are the largest contributors.
  - midoridensha 3y ago
    We're talking about densification. In a non-dense (e.g. American) city, everything is spread out, there's highways, so cars travel very fast. In a dense city like Copenhagen (and also here in Tokyo), there aren't many highways or cars so the traffic is mostly trucks traveling at low speeds. Tire noise is negligible at very low speeds, but diesel engines are noisy. So in a dense city, you notice the noisy trucks with their clacking engines. In an American city, vehicles are whizzing by at 100+kph on multi-lane roads or highways, so you hear tire noise, even from a distance. Making all the cars in America electric isn't going to do anything about highway noise. But making all the trucks in Tokyo electric would really make the roads here a lot quieter (and they're already pretty quiet, it just depends on where you go; places with lots of stores need trucks, whereas neighborhoods don't).

Unfortunately, it doesn't change at all with electric cars, because most of the noise comes from tires, not engine exhaust. Next!

Symbiote 3y ago
Some measurements: https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8?t=609&feature=shared https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8?t=609&feature=shared The noisiest vehicles in the centre of Copenhagen seem to be diesel delivery vans, so it's a decent improvement as these are swapped for electric ones.
- stouset 3y ago
  The center of Copenhagen has very different traffic composition than essentially every American city.
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    The context was "densification if done right could even make things quieter", and Copenhagen — at least the centre and inner districts — is generally considered to be doing things right. Slowly driven electric cars are slightly quieter than slowly driven petrol/diesel cars, but the greater improvement is the slowly driven vans, trucks, refuse lorries and so on. (Especially the electric refuse lorries! No more loud diesel thing emptying bins at silly-in-the-morning.)
    - stouset 3y ago
      > The context was "densification if done right could even make things quieter", and Copenhagen — at least the centre and inner districts — is generally considered to be doing things right. Which is precisely why their traffic composition is different than that of American cities. I absolutely believe that the lowest-hanging fruit in many of Copenhagen’s streets are diesel delivery trucks. I do not believe that American cities have adopted the kind of forward-thinking policies that would have reduced other sources of traffic noise to the point where those are the largest contributors.
- midoridensha 3y ago
  We're talking about densification. In a non-dense (e.g. American) city, everything is spread out, there's highways, so cars travel very fast. In a dense city like Copenhagen (and also here in Tokyo), there aren't many highways or cars so the traffic is mostly trucks traveling at low speeds. Tire noise is negligible at very low speeds, but diesel engines are noisy. So in a dense city, you notice the noisy trucks with their clacking engines. In an American city, vehicles are whizzing by at 100+kph on multi-lane roads or highways, so you hear tire noise, even from a distance. Making all the cars in America electric isn't going to do anything about highway noise. But making all the trucks in Tokyo electric would really make the roads here a lot quieter (and they're already pretty quiet, it just depends on where you go; places with lots of stores need trucks, whereas neighborhoods don't).