Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud

Watch his video. Pick 2-3 at random, be a grown up and ignore the tone of voice and the snarkiness, and see what his points are. They're very solid. Try something like this: ▶ this video link

> Cities aren't loud. Cars are loud. Fantastic video with that very name exploring just how true this is: ▶ this video

Cars driving at high speed over normal asphalt also generate a lot of tire noies and particulate pollution, even if they are electric cars. I found this video pretty interesting - some cities are experimenting with different road surfaces to reduce noise ▶ this video

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. ▶ this video

NJB has a video on the subject which is pretty astounding if you've never really considered it: ▶ this video It also specifically calls out mopeds: ▶ this video

An addendum to the posted article: ▶ this video Cities aren't loud; motor vehicles are. Tire noise near heavy stroads and highways are in particular egregious offenders. There's a lot of other points in the comments about some other urban nuisances (leaf blowers, anyone?) but I encourage anyone to walk around (yes, walk) while measuring the ambient noise levels with your smartphone's microphone. It will be extremely obvious where the noise is coming from. This is an often misunderstood part of "the war on cars:" the stress gained from additional constant noise (e.g. like a highway) takes YEARS off our lives. And don't get me started on how loud shops are in North America. For whatever reason they seem to always keep the volume three or four levels above comfortable, making it much harder to have a conversation without shouting at least a little. It wasn't until I started traveling a lot that I started to notice any of this. You can have your quiet part of town, but often you get to your quiet part of town by driving through the noisiest part of town where a good number of people live and work.

I don't get why I am getting such emotional responses. Most of the noise in cities comes from cars, that is a fact. Even dense cities can be fairly quiet. I suggest watching this video: ▶ this video Plus China has probably not the best building codes, the problem can be further improved by having proper sound isolation in homes. Dense cities mean you will have everything in walking distance. There will be much more space for parks and other areas of recreation.

I think you'll be very interested in the "Not Just Bikes" channel as he talks a lot about urban planing. There's a lot of political will and momentum for making living spaces ... livable in Europe. Places like The Netherlands and Denmark in particular. A video specifically about noise pollution and how European cities are trying to solve it - ▶ this video

Yeah. Some places do take it seriously; this video provides some nice context: ▶ this video ...my city is unfortunately not one of them.

NotJustBikes does a great video on this ▶ this video Cities aren't Loud, Cars are Loud. Most "cities" in North America, to use the term generously, are miserable car sewers where you need to shout to have a conversation outside.

I first heard the phrase used by parent in a video [1] by youtube channel Not Just Bikes, which found EVs to be similar to ICE cars at typical speeds. [1] ▶ this video

> So make cars pollute less Physically impossible to have them pollute less than methods of mass transportation. Mathematically, even. Just divide the number of people carried per pollution caused by cars vs trains, bikes, or even buses. There's nothing you can do to make cars competitive. > Figure out how to filter microplastics from our food and water "Just figure it out", ok. But even then, an ounce of prevention is worth the pound of a cure. > Figure out what's causing asthma in children A little random but ok. I'm guessing grinding up rubber and metal particles into the air right next to where said children live isn't the best for their lungs. > Not sure how obesity is related. Maybe improve the food supply? 1. Wake up 2. Walk 30 feet to your car 3. Sit as you drive to work 4. Spend 8 hours at your desk 5. Walk 30 feet to your car 6. Sleep 7. Why am I fat?! Maybe improve the food supply?! > A lot of these are solved with electric cars which are increasingly more competitive. Virtually none are, an electric car is still a car, see point 1. > Why force people to regress towards a worse product rather than address these technical issues? Highly dependent on your definition of worse; I'd argue the sort of streets and environments you can find in the Netherlands [1][2][3] are way better than in the US. Not everything is a technical issue that can simply be solved by better engineering. [1]: ▶ this video [2]: link [3]: link