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Noise exposure is linked to chronic stress and heart disease. It’s time to make peace and quiet a public health right (theconversation.com)
submitted 9 hours ago by livligkinkajou@slrpnk.net to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

But the most significant change in modern science is not just about the amount of noise, but how we experience it. Noise is no longer understood solely as a problem that affects hearing, it is also recognised as a systemic environmental pollutant. Transport noise is now one of the leading environmental cause of illness in Europe, second only to air pollution.

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[-] CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works 1 points 30 minutes ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago)

I’ve had seedlings of this idea earlier this year so I’m happy to see this. It’s my fault for letting it rile me up so much, but neighborhood security cameras that make fuckass noises or yell “HI UR ON CAMERA” anger me to a likely unhealthy degree. They take a peaceful enough morning dog walk through a relatively low traffic noise neighborhood and shatter my peace of mind absorbing what little nature sounds I can. I’ve already made peace with myself that everyone now is too big a paranoid piss baby that they have to have their doorbell cams and other cams hoovering up my image into the panopticon against my will and consent. But then to have them fucking talk at me is beyond the pale.

[-] DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 hours ago

I'll pencil that one in right below healthcare and education.

[-] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 hours ago

The US just said that clean drinking water isn’t a right, so good luck with getting peace and quiet recognised as a right…

[-] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

But keep having obnoxious back up sirens for no reason, forcing deliveries at 5AM with loading dock doors slamming and lift gates whirring, etc

[-] KulunkelBoom@lemmus.org 12 points 4 hours ago

Fuck internal combustion engines with no exhaust, or amplified exhaust, or "loud" exhaust.

And double fuck the sorry assholes who ride/own them.

[-] ScarlettStunningSpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 4 hours ago

I get so stressed from too much noise and there's nothing I can do about it. If anything it's so much worse since starting hormones

[-] blargh513@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 hours ago

Noise cancelling earbuds? Even the $30 ones are pretty good.

[-] TheMuffinMan@piefed.world 48 points 8 hours ago

Motorbikes are without a doubt my biggest source of audio-related stress. Cars are noisy too, but only a sliver in comparison.

Then there’s the special breed of bikers who go out of their way to announce themselves as infuriatingly as possible. I wish them a hot and itchy sleep tonight.

[-] Malica@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

The theory is that it keeps them safe because drivers hear them before seeing them.

[-] fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com 5 points 2 hours ago

That's not how sound works. Sound works by inverse square, light doesn't. Visibility is way more important. If they wanted to be more noticed they would wear high his clothing.

[-] possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

Hi vis clothing only matters when they actually see you, which they dont, because they're looking at their phones. Noise otoh, may make them actually fucking look.

Sincerely, a motorcyclist.

[-] Malica@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

Makes more sense than their argument

[-] severalkittens@ani.social 14 points 7 hours ago

Motorcycles are a close 2nd only to my neighbors who leave their dogs out barking all night

[-] gibmiser@lemmy.world 17 points 8 hours ago

A million years ago southpark had an episode about that...

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

In the before times. In the long long ago.

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub -2 points 7 hours ago

Then there’s the special breed of bikers who go out of their way to announce themselves as infuriatingly as possible. I wish them a hot and itchy sleep tonight.

Some are absolutely obnoxious about this, but there is also a safety issue. A lot of car drivers don't watch carefully enough for motorcycles (or bicycles). Being quiet is dangerous, it makes it more likely that drivers won't notice you, and then you get hit because they didn't see you either, and you're not in an armored box, so you die. Being loud on the road keeps you alive.

[-] ieGod@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

Been riding for nearly two decades at this point but this is a myth. People fail to hear emergency vehicles. Your loud pipes aren't saving you.

[-] kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

This logic falls apart because the only time I ever hear motorcycles is when I'm not driving.

Whenever I'm driving, I'm generating my own road noise and listening to music. Just like most other drivers. People around here barely react to emergency sirens, they're not hearing the busted pipes on an abused Harley. Motorcycle guys just like making loud noises, if they cared about safety? They wouldn't ride a motorcycle.

I think motorcycles are cool as hell. But since the introduction of modern workplace safety laws, motorcycle crashes are the leading cause of amputations in the USA, so I'll never ride one. I don't think they should be banned, but it blows my mind that people choose to ride them given how dangerous they are.

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 7 hours ago

If the only way I could safely drive my vehicle was to be a loud obnoxious fuck constantly to everyone in a quarter mile radius in heavily populated areas, I would simply take a different mode of transportation. RIP to everyone else but I’m different

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Oh I agree, motorcycle riding is a very risky thing to do. There's effectively no protection. It's not a good idea, even without the context of other drivers. Worse, if you have an accident then the motorcycle becomes a 500-lb hazard .

I think it's completely understandable that a rider wants to be loud though, especially in the present with so many drivers looking at their phones instead of watching the road.

[-] fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com 2 points 2 hours ago

They don't listen to music?

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 9 points 6 hours ago

This is some highly enriched, weapons grade bullshit. You want drivers to see you? Don't drive like an idiot. The best way to be hit by a car when you're on a motorbike is to drive way faster than everyone else, change lanes constantly, overtake cars on the right and split lanes. Guess who does that the most? Idiots on loud bikes.

On top of that you will not hear a bike driving behind you, no matter how loud it is. I have no idea in what fantasy scenarios laud bikes save anyone. It's 100% just a stupid excuse used by obnoxious idiots.

[-] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago

you can absolutely hear a loud bike approaching your blind spot, which is kind of the important time to be noticing them

even I can hear them with my half deafness and shitty loud car that you have to yell in to have a conversation on the highway

[-] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 35 minutes ago)

Motorcycles are fun as hell, but safety has nothing to do with loudness and everything to do with hyper situational awareness and anticipating problems. The fatality curve peaks squarely in the Dunning-Kruger zone. New riders make mistakes but usually resulting in no or lesser injuries because they're scared and careful. It's when people get (over) confident at a year or so that the real problems come, usually resulting in a really bad scare or death or major injury. Those that (can and do) continue become super aware of their surroundings and are mostly the safest drivers out there, and the death and accident rate goes way down.

Truthfully driving societies would be way better off if people had to start on motorbikes (or ebikes) before starting to drive around 2 tons of death, the awareness stays with you. That said, fuck cars.

None of any of that has anything to do with noise, cars are sound isolated against their own noise FFS. In aggregate cars make much more noise than motorbikes anyway, sheer numbers, it's just that you notice the dickhead with the loud pipes more (when you're not in a sound isolating car).

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 6 points 7 hours ago

Ok so let's fix both

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 5 points 6 hours ago

Public transit? Do I hear public transit?

[-] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

irrelevant in residential areas

[-] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 38 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I despise leaf blowers with all of my being, dear Lord how I loathe them.

Is raking that hard? So hard that every house within a mile should listen to your leaf blower, instead? WHEEEEERRRRR WHEEEEEERR I'M BLOWIN' MY LEAFS WHEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR

... the worst part is, it's 100% unnecessary, there's no need to blow leaves. They're supposed to be there, they don't hurt a thing. Morons

[-] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

They don't bother me, even the loud gas-powered ones.

My HOA includes landscaping and they come around once on month on Monday and that saves me from raking. It only takes a few minutes and they move on to the next house.

Purposely loud motorcycles and cars, on the other hand...

[-] _deleted_@aussie.zone 2 points 3 hours ago

I don’t hate my neighbours enough to buy a leaf blower.

[-] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 9 points 5 hours ago

I've been prepping my driveway for the last week to seal coat it, and I feel bad when I need to run the electric blower for like ten minutes max.

I keep the garage door shut when I run the air compressor and run the hose out under it, which works very well to suppress the noise.

I also share the opinion that regular leaf cleanup is stupid. like just leave 'em be, the bugs will use them and they'll feed the lawn. raking is usually easier than blowing anyways, in my experience. maybe that's just because I've never cut my grass weekly and don't have a golf course for a yard

[-] blargh513@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 hours ago

I hate grass and I hate all the stupid shit it takes to maintain it. Mowers, blowers, weed whackers. All that fucking stupid waste to cut grass and put it in a landfill.

Grass consumes so many resources only to end up in the dump. Most of my neighbors bag it up and put it in the trash. Water, useless fertilizer, pesticides, weed killer and other stuff, it is nontrivial.

Omfg, at least compost it! Fucking morons and their grass. I cut mine like every three weeks and clean up none of it. It can just lay there. If I didn't live in a bullshit hoa neighborhood, I would just let it turn into a meadow. Ive seeded microclover, but it's slow to take over. Working on it a little more each year.

[-] azimir@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 hours ago

Gas leaf blowers genate a fuckton of pollution. The stats are horrific for their outsoded carbon footprint. Like on the order of 30 minutes of a leaf blower is about the same as a truck driving from texas to Alaska. They should be banned for both noise and airborne gas pollutions.

[-] AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 hours ago

gonna print this out and tape it to my upstairs neighbors door

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I've seen stats from Switzerland (IIRC) that said 70% of vehicles breaking noise limits where motorbikes. 20% were trucks and busses. 10% were cars. You want to address transport noise? Get rid of bikers.

It's nice to see that it's getting some attention but I've been seeing stories about this for years. We will be long dead before this is addressed, let alone solved.

[-] azimir@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 hours ago

The stats sound about right, based on general world experience.

What those don't address is quantity per category. There's way more cars than motorbikes on the roads (in Switzerland and most EU/North America areas).

The loudest part of a car is usually (assuming it's got a legal muffler) the wheels in contact while rolling at speed. So, while few cars might be breaking a sound law individually, the sheer quantity of cars driving fast makes for the general cacophony you hear in the city. It's then punctuated with motorbikes, car horns, and leaf blowers. That basic rumble you can never escape is just the tires of the cars rolling along.

Also assholes playing loud music. The only reason for that is because you're attention starved. Turn the music down and go get a hug you dicks.

[-] the_q@piefed.social 7 points 8 hours ago

Masculinity is loud.

[-] Kind_to_Everyone@slrpnk.net 1 points 31 minutes ago

Well, fragile masculinity is.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 4 points 7 hours ago

Consider those who insist on loud music all day and night, or who sleep with TV on.

[-] username_1@discuss.tchncs.de -2 points 8 hours ago

I live near(30-50 meters? ) an intertown road and my windows are looking on landing strip of the international airport(1-2 km). My most irritating source of noise are my imbecilic neighbors who can't bother to let their degenerative kids on street and I'm not even sure if they go to school. So the kids (~10 years old) just scream and stomp on my ceiling. I suspect they're too dumb to learn anything in school anyway.

Cars are ok. Airport is even more ok.

[-] doleo@lemmy.ml -1 points 6 hours ago

Cars are ok.

If that's your take, then you should stop moaning about kids playing indoors.

this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2026
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