4 ms·

The "quieter" aspect is no joke. For the first time in my life, I moved into an apartment near a busy road, the noise is very difficult and I have to wear silic

The "quieter" aspect is no joke. For the first time in my life, I moved into an apartment near a busy road, the noise is very difficult and I have to wear silicone ear plugs/pillows at night just to sleep because of car noise, especially people with loud motorcycles and trucks and cars that think everyone wants to hear them at 2am. Outside of that over-the-top "flex" noise, just the car noise is fatiguing. One can say "well, you shouldn't live there" but after I experienced it I realised how much housing is built right by main roads and many people don't always have the most privilege to make that choice. So I think this is a big win for noise pollution, which affects everyone. We just don't realize how much it matters until we hear the inverse, which is silence. Then it's like "oh wow, I didn't realise how loud it was, that feels so much better".

quickthrower2 3y ago
If people didn’t live in such places then the housing crisis would be much worse. Infact where I live I think main roads/trains are a requirement to get the zoning to build the apartments! I wonder if sound proofing (the expensive high density kind) might help? Depends if you are renting or not. It might cost a few $10k but could be worth it for QOL.
- ElijahLynn 3y ago
  Sound proofing can totally work, and I actually think all apartments in an apartment building or maybe just all dwelling structures should have an average, min and max noise level in decibels with the windows open. It is really nice, and sometimes important to be able to get outside air into the home. Noise proofing only works (and it does work with the right windows, doors, floors, ceilings) if the windows and doors are closed. Once you open one even a crack, the noise comes pouring in like high pressure water.
betaby 3y ago
That the thing, apartments in US/Canada are in 'trashier' pockets of the city. Single family homes are well located mostly and don't have such problems. Reason is simply - apartments were put there they are well after city was fully developed. Speaking from my experience in Toronto/Montreal areas. Thus I disagree about traffic noise, it's a necessary evil. Real evil is vast zones of single family areas in the city limits, especially close to metro.
- SamBam 3y ago
  > Reason is simply - apartments were put there they are well after city was fully developed. I'm confused by this statement. In any older city in the US, like in any city in Europe, the heart of the city is apartment buildings. Those would have been the main part of the city by the time it was big enough to be called a "city." Single family homes were generally in later areas -- suburbs, or suburbs that got swallowed up by the city -- or in the small exclusive pockets of extremely wealthy areas.
  - betaby 3y ago
    We are talking about very different apartments. Compare old city https://maps.app.goo.gl/t9TRsNMnQ93Yr42X7 https://maps.app.goo.gl/t9TRsNMnQ93Yr42X7 and modern development in front of highway https://maps.app.goo.gl/yiL3UXuxRVd1c1oW8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/yiL3UXuxRVd1c1oW8
- truculent 3y ago
  What do you make of the switch to 30kmph with respect to “necessary evil”? It seems like Amsterdam has decided it isn’t necessary at all, for the reasons stated in the article
  - betaby 3y ago
    Context is the king. Read the original comment I'was replying. As for Amsterdam - it's a tiny city area wise, 30 km/h is mostly core. All highway limits stays the same. Map they provided show 50 km/h outside of the very centre. I'm glad for them if that make a difference. As a side note I didn't enjoy Amsterdam public transport (again comparing with Montreal). As a related fact in Montreal that stretch of the road https://maps.app.goo.gl/dgG8avYABUgbZ7BTA https://maps.app.goo.gl/dgG8avYABUgbZ7BTA was switched from 50km/h to 40km/h. As you can see it has fences on both sides, so it's hard to justify safety reasons here.
- coeneedell 3y ago
  Some new apartments in 5-over-2 buildings sure. But developers only build apartments in areas that already have high land value, this includes areas like center city, Phila, the loop in Chicago, the central west end in St. Louis, etc,
stephen_g 3y ago
So true - there are some good video comparisons that really hit this home for me, like the Not Just Bikes video “Cities aren’t loud; Cars are loud” [1] 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8
- carsarebad 3y ago
  [flagged]
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Delft has done an even better job than Amsterdam so far, but I think that because of the stature of Amsterdam in Dutch society that many other cities will follow now.
- ElijahLynn 3y ago
  Great video, thanks for sharing that!
thaumasiotes 3y ago
> One can say "well, you shouldn't live there" but after I experienced it I realised how much housing is built right by main roads The road is a primary road because the housing is there. If the road went through the middle of nowhere, it wouldn't be a main road.
fnordpiglet 3y ago
The loud motorcycle crowd deserve death. I am a pacifist and believe strongly that love and kindness is the natural state of man, but people unwinding their modified bikes down residential streets are just malicious monsters who torture entire neighborhoods for their perverse pleasure. I don’t buy their “to be noticed by cars on the highway” malarkey, since they wind up their motors to earth shattering levels on city roads at every opportunity, rattling windows and setting off car alarms, clearly to gain the notice of everyone sleeping rather than for their own safety.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- Teever 3y ago
  I foresee a future where people who have become deranged by motorcycle noise build small quadcopters that have a steel piece in their frame and a sound detector that when triggered make the quadcopter fly insanely fast towards a motorcycle wheel, lodging that piece of steel right inside the wheel causing the motorcycle driver to lose control and die.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    I sympathize with your sentiment if not with your method. I've lived on an intersection of two large roads in Riga, LV and in the summer you couldn't sleep with the windows open (and with the windows closed you couldn't sleep either). Ditto on Overtoom in Amsterdam. Loud bikes in cities are extremely aggravating.
  - Yizahi 3y ago
    After the Ruzzia-Ukraine war all the kamikaze drone production will need to go somewhere :)
- hughdbrown 3y ago
  I see your transient crowd of loud motorcycles and raise you a stationary team of suburban gas-powered leaf blowers.
sologoub 3y ago
I live on a popular local road, but cars/trucks are nothing in comparison to motorcycles. It’s especially bad when there are large groups - not sure what the physics behind this, but it seems to resonate even worse and shake the entire house. There’s no reason it needs to be this loud and the usual safety argument doesn’t resonate with me… pun intended…
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
latchkey 3y ago
Definitely one aspect of Vietnam/SE Asia that I don't miss. Whole country is based on honking motorbikes 24/7.
dex69420 3y ago
Tell me you’re poor without telling me you’re poor
- ElijahLynn 3y ago
  I actually live in one of the more expensive "luxury" apartments in the area, is has an amazing view too. This really doesn't have anything to do with being poor. There are million dollar apartments in NYC that have this same issue. Are they poor?
hintymad 3y ago
I used to read a book about complex systems. The book told a story that a town decided to build speed bumps to slow down traffic in its downtown area. As a results, there are more cars on the road and more noise. I guess the reality is more complex the what the book covers.
r00fus 3y ago
The move to EVs has made my neighborhood in silicon valley a lot quieter over the past 10 years. We live near a private school so some mornings the line of cars gets long - since about 2020 a large number of these are Teslas or other EVs. The line is annoying but the noise and emissions aren't a big deal anymore.

quickthrower2 3y ago

If people didn’t live in such places then the housing crisis would be much worse. Infact where I live I think main roads/trains are a requirement to get the zoning to build the apartments! I wonder if sound proofing (the expensive high density kind) might help? Depends if you are renting or not. It might cost a few $10k but could be worth it for QOL.

ElijahLynn 3y ago
Sound proofing can totally work, and I actually think all apartments in an apartment building or maybe just all dwelling structures should have an average, min and max noise level in decibels with the windows open. It is really nice, and sometimes important to be able to get outside air into the home. Noise proofing only works (and it does work with the right windows, doors, floors, ceilings) if the windows and doors are closed. Once you open one even a crack, the noise comes pouring in like high pressure water.

betaby 3y ago

That the thing, apartments in US/Canada are in 'trashier' pockets of the city. Single family homes are well located mostly and don't have such problems. Reason is simply - apartments were put there they are well after city was fully developed. Speaking from my experience in Toronto/Montreal areas. Thus I disagree about traffic noise, it's a necessary evil. Real evil is vast zones of single family areas in the city limits, especially close to metro.

SamBam 3y ago
> Reason is simply - apartments were put there they are well after city was fully developed. I'm confused by this statement. In any older city in the US, like in any city in Europe, the heart of the city is apartment buildings. Those would have been the main part of the city by the time it was big enough to be called a "city." Single family homes were generally in later areas -- suburbs, or suburbs that got swallowed up by the city -- or in the small exclusive pockets of extremely wealthy areas.
- betaby 3y ago
  We are talking about very different apartments. Compare old city https://maps.app.goo.gl/t9TRsNMnQ93Yr42X7 https://maps.app.goo.gl/t9TRsNMnQ93Yr42X7 and modern development in front of highway https://maps.app.goo.gl/yiL3UXuxRVd1c1oW8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/yiL3UXuxRVd1c1oW8
truculent 3y ago
What do you make of the switch to 30kmph with respect to “necessary evil”? It seems like Amsterdam has decided it isn’t necessary at all, for the reasons stated in the article
- betaby 3y ago
  Context is the king. Read the original comment I'was replying. As for Amsterdam - it's a tiny city area wise, 30 km/h is mostly core. All highway limits stays the same. Map they provided show 50 km/h outside of the very centre. I'm glad for them if that make a difference. As a side note I didn't enjoy Amsterdam public transport (again comparing with Montreal). As a related fact in Montreal that stretch of the road https://maps.app.goo.gl/dgG8avYABUgbZ7BTA https://maps.app.goo.gl/dgG8avYABUgbZ7BTA was switched from 50km/h to 40km/h. As you can see it has fences on both sides, so it's hard to justify safety reasons here.
coeneedell 3y ago
Some new apartments in 5-over-2 buildings sure. But developers only build apartments in areas that already have high land value, this includes areas like center city, Phila, the loop in Chicago, the central west end in St. Louis, etc,

stephen_g 3y ago

So true - there are some good video comparisons that really hit this home for me, like the Not Just Bikes video “Cities aren’t loud; Cars are loud” [1] 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8

carsarebad 3y ago
[flagged]
jacquesm 3y ago
Delft has done an even better job than Amsterdam so far, but I think that because of the stature of Amsterdam in Dutch society that many other cities will follow now.
ElijahLynn 3y ago
Great video, thanks for sharing that!

thaumasiotes 3y ago

> One can say "well, you shouldn't live there" but after I experienced it I realised how much housing is built right by main roads The road is a primary road because the housing is there. If the road went through the middle of nowhere, it wouldn't be a main road.

fnordpiglet 3y ago

The loud motorcycle crowd deserve death. I am a pacifist and believe strongly that love and kindness is the natural state of man, but people unwinding their modified bikes down residential streets are just malicious monsters who torture entire neighborhoods for their perverse pleasure. I don’t buy their “to be noticed by cars on the highway” malarkey, since they wind up their motors to earth shattering levels on city roads at every opportunity, rattling windows and setting off car alarms, clearly to gain the notice of everyone sleeping rather than for their own safety.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Teever 3y ago
I foresee a future where people who have become deranged by motorcycle noise build small quadcopters that have a steel piece in their frame and a sound detector that when triggered make the quadcopter fly insanely fast towards a motorcycle wheel, lodging that piece of steel right inside the wheel causing the motorcycle driver to lose control and die.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  I sympathize with your sentiment if not with your method. I've lived on an intersection of two large roads in Riga, LV and in the summer you couldn't sleep with the windows open (and with the windows closed you couldn't sleep either). Ditto on Overtoom in Amsterdam. Loud bikes in cities are extremely aggravating.
- Yizahi 3y ago
  After the Ruzzia-Ukraine war all the kamikaze drone production will need to go somewhere :)
hughdbrown 3y ago
I see your transient crowd of loud motorcycles and raise you a stationary team of suburban gas-powered leaf blowers.

sologoub 3y ago

I live on a popular local road, but cars/trucks are nothing in comparison to motorcycles. It’s especially bad when there are large groups - not sure what the physics behind this, but it seems to resonate even worse and shake the entire house. There’s no reason it needs to be this loud and the usual safety argument doesn’t resonate with me… pun intended…

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

latchkey 3y ago

Definitely one aspect of Vietnam/SE Asia that I don't miss. Whole country is based on honking motorbikes 24/7.

dex69420 3y ago

Tell me you’re poor without telling me you’re poor

ElijahLynn 3y ago
I actually live in one of the more expensive "luxury" apartments in the area, is has an amazing view too. This really doesn't have anything to do with being poor. There are million dollar apartments in NYC that have this same issue. Are they poor?

hintymad 3y ago

I used to read a book about complex systems. The book told a story that a town decided to build speed bumps to slow down traffic in its downtown area. As a results, there are more cars on the road and more noise. I guess the reality is more complex the what the book covers.

r00fus 3y ago

The move to EVs has made my neighborhood in silicon valley a lot quieter over the past 10 years. We live near a private school so some mornings the line of cars gets long - since about 2020 a large number of these are Teslas or other EVs. The line is annoying but the noise and emissions aren't a big deal anymore.