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I was really curious about their methodology, since this seems like a very non-trivial dataset to acquire. But TLDR they just scraped a bunch of reviews for me

I was really curious about their methodology, since this seems like a very non-trivial dataset to acquire. But TLDR they just scraped a bunch of reviews for mentions of the words ‘quiet’, ‘relaxing’, ‘tranquil’, ‘calm’, and ‘peaceful’. It's not the same as actually sampling sound levels throughout a city. Probably many of the quietest places won't have map listings and reviews at all.

fnordpiglet 3y ago
Yeah it would have been nice to see some sort of actual analytic and quantitively measured heat maps that were maybe crowd sourced from the relatively large communities of people interested in noise pollution world wide. But the layout is pretty.
- solardev 3y ago
  > But the layout is pretty. Yes, but I hate how they use form over function to hide poor data :( It's the kind of high-gloss presentation that makes me immediately suspicious. If they simply called the report "people's favorite places to relax in cities" that would've been more more accurate, but less marketable, I suppose.
ryankrage77 3y ago
That explains why a garden near me shows as 'quiet' - it's a lovely garden, but it's next to two busy roads, so it's definitely not quiet.
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  The garden is quiet, but the roads are noisy.
thakoppno 3y ago
> a very non-trivial dataset to acquire Any crowdsourcing theories about how many samples would be needed to accomplish this mission? Presume phones have sufficient sensors to acquire samples.
- solardev 3y ago
  In my completely non-expert opinion, I think it would also be a hard dataset to normalize across mic sensitivities/auto gain control/time of day/weather/phone orientation/etc., even if you got a billion people to submit readings. Still, there have been previous attempts at this: 2013: https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/10/22/112756/noise-pollution-maps-crowdsourced-from-smartphone-data/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/10/22/112756/noise-pol... 2019, with calibration: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003682X19306772 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00036... 2023, iOS only in the USA: https://deohs.washington.edu/noise-across-america-study https://deohs.washington.edu/noise-across-america-study There's a bunch more on Google Scholar, actually.

fnordpiglet 3y ago

Yeah it would have been nice to see some sort of actual analytic and quantitively measured heat maps that were maybe crowd sourced from the relatively large communities of people interested in noise pollution world wide. But the layout is pretty.

solardev 3y ago
> But the layout is pretty. Yes, but I hate how they use form over function to hide poor data :( It's the kind of high-gloss presentation that makes me immediately suspicious. If they simply called the report "people's favorite places to relax in cities" that would've been more more accurate, but less marketable, I suppose.

ryankrage77 3y ago

That explains why a garden near me shows as 'quiet' - it's a lovely garden, but it's next to two busy roads, so it's definitely not quiet.

InCityDreams 3y ago
The garden is quiet, but the roads are noisy.

thakoppno 3y ago

> a very non-trivial dataset to acquire Any crowdsourcing theories about how many samples would be needed to accomplish this mission? Presume phones have sufficient sensors to acquire samples.

solardev 3y ago
In my completely non-expert opinion, I think it would also be a hard dataset to normalize across mic sensitivities/auto gain control/time of day/weather/phone orientation/etc., even if you got a billion people to submit readings. Still, there have been previous attempts at this: 2013: https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/10/22/112756/noise-pollution-maps-crowdsourced-from-smartphone-data/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/10/22/112756/noise-pol... 2019, with calibration: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003682X19306772 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00036... 2023, iOS only in the USA: https://deohs.washington.edu/noise-across-america-study https://deohs.washington.edu/noise-across-america-study There's a bunch more on Google Scholar, actually.