I think it’s important to differentiate (as this website does) the human made noise from the natural.
I love being in the woods / fields / lakes. Fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. when you’re out there for a while you realize how much noise there really is. I wish everyone could / would take a few days a month and just spend it in the the natural world.
I feel revived after spending a day or two listening to the leaves blowing. As some have pointed out here, going back to civilization is hard. The noise doesn’t necessarily bother me on a conscious level, but it eats my focus and drains me throughout the day. Almost creating a tension, just from the constant sounds and being alert.
> The Colorado State University Listening Lab was established in 2013 as a collaboration with the Natural Sounds & Night Skies Division of the National Park Service. The primary goal of the lab is to aid in the preservation and understanding of natural soundscapes by providing a resource to efficiently analyze the thousands of hours of acoustic data collected each year within parks, allowing park officials and scientists to promptly employ effective soundscape management decisions where needed.
> The lab typically employs 5 to 10 well-trained undergraduate student listeners to analyze the acoustic data that our NPS Scientists & Research Associates record within national parks around the country. Many of our student listeners are also enrolled in the University Honors Program and use their time in the lab to complete their honors theses. These students have moved beyond basic data analysis and have explored how noise affects the natural world to produce the following theses:
A long time ago I moved from a big city to the country and the difference in noise was remarkable. In retrospect, I’d say noise level adjustment was actually the biggest pain point. I went from being fairly desensitized to constant noise to being hyper sensitive to something like a blade of grass being bent outside my bedroom (“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?”), to finally acclimating to it. Nights were difficult. Any animal going through the yard sounded like a person to me and I couldn’t sleep. Now I can generally tell what’s outside by the sound it makes and it doesn’t bother me. I can’t stand being in densely populated areas anymore.
I had a similar feeling moving from London to deep English countryside with my parents as a kid. But it was the sheer silence of the place we moved to that unnerved me, and it took me a good few weeks for me to go to sleep normally. (There were plenty of small animals, but my bedroom was on a high first floor, so I couldn’t hear things scuttling about). I live in a small city again now, and really miss the true quiet at night. Funny enough, the pandemic lockdowns in the UK were reminiscent of being in the country - far fewer cars and public transport meant that there was real quiet for once and the reduction in pollution meant that you could smell al sorts of things that were normally dominated by ambient exhaust fumes. I remember one time in particular when i realised I could hear a train in the far distance for the first time since I moved here.
> But it was the sheer silence of the place we moved to that unnerved me
I live in a small town in Canada and I can travel outside the town just a few minutes and be in rural area. Although it's getting increasingly longer to get outside sprawl.
When I am there I often think to myself how quiet it is. At times it feels like my skull is going to collapse from the negative pressure of lack of sound.
And where I live near (~500m) the main hospital it seems to be with the increase in population comes an increase in ambulances. They at times seem to be constant on weekends or warm sunny days. Plus the emergency life flight helicopter. Maybe that's why the silence of rural areas is such a contrast to me.
Also the difference between outdoors a generation ago and outdoors now. Depending on where you are, the decrease in birdcalls is huge, but happens so slowly that most people don't know what we're missing. That loss has been happening over longer than a generation or two.
Also, there are fewer places where you hear no car noises or planes at all.
I’m personally of an opinion that’s a good thing — that means progress and a more robust civilization.
I don’t think there’s a limitation on places that are relatively silent. In other words, you can get a relatively silent world even 30 min for nearly every place on this map.
That said, I support forest preserves and places like the boundary waters
Where they intentionally create preserves with no motors or human civilization.
I’ll also mention the decline in bird populations also startled me. For much of my life I went to the woods and heard so many birds. Even in the past few years I’ve notified the rapid decline.
That said, I always try to put it in perspective. 100% of the trees, grass, birds, bugs, etc in North America only came around the last 10,000 - 20,000 years. I’m not sure what is causing no the bird decline (I suspect it’s pesticides, with the protective agencies not regulating effectively or invasive species such as cats). I’m sure natural will adapt to fill the niche, but it’s definitely different.
Even as part of the normal seasonal cycle, I don’t notice how much less birdsong there is until it’s spring once again and the air is filled with bird calls. I don’t notice it getting quieter overs the weeks leading into summer.
It also varies. I live in a small village, and it's usually quite quiet, minus when a train goes past (railway is about half a mile away) or the bus goes past (bus route about 30 metres away). But on the very rare occasions when we get a decent covering of snow, then it gets really quiet - not just because the road is unused and the animals are hunkering down, but also because snow absorbs sound really well.
> [Natural] noise ... I love [it ...] out there [...] you realize how much noise there really is
It's because you are healthy. After an indigestion of artificial noise, even natural noise becomes an issue, unbearable. If you "break" after the "artificial" (more, "unnatural"), you will be compromised for the natural.
It pains me that noise pollution isn't taken as seriously as other forms of environmental damage when it's the one that most directly impacts (urban) people's quality of life.
The cars, trucks and motorcycles with booming exhaust pipes are insufferable. I despise hearing them revving by. I feel like I'm crazy for how much it bothers me. But then I read a story about a man shooting a driver who was just revving up and down his street, so I'm not alone.
I spent a week in Helsinki, and was blown away by how quiet it was despite being far more dense than my city.
I had to move because of the motorcycles. I literally couldn’t take it anymore. Too many nights being woken up at 2am. Those people don’t care about anyone but themselves.
Same here. We lived in a grid system suburb where the roads next to us were used all hours of the day by cars. There was a constant stream of illegally modified trucks screaming past us and waking us up all hours of the night.
I so relate. I was once able to test drive a Audi R8 Spyder because the agency I work for works for Audi.
The motor sound isn't anything near quiet. Far from it. But I was astounded to find a button that enables a loud motor sound function.
With this button pressed the sound makes a lot of bikes sound like child toys. I really don't understand how one needs to show off in such a fashion and explicitly expressing a loud (pun intended) f** you to the rest of the world.
Victims of Stockholm syndrome. They were conditioned to associate the pleasure of effortless movement - such as you get silently on a sailboat or downhill skiing or biking - with the noise of internal combustion contraptions.
Ugh, there is one dude in my town with this beat up old Civic with what sounds like a literal tin can for an exhaust, and the engine is tuned so badly that it backfires every time he shifts, which he does at the bend by my house. Which of course sets the dogs barking.
All I'm saying is, I kinda commiserate with the guy in that story.
Europe in general seems to have far less of that particular kind of jackassery. Better enforcement? Or are people just more considerate?
Yeah, especially at 11:30 at night as they loudly rev their bikes with a grin at. every. damned. stop. sign.
Really, do they have to? They can't just give it a little throttle to get it moving, they have to open it all the way unsettling the whole neighborhood with the exhaust noise when it's otherwise quiet and there are few cars?
They kinda do. About 30% of people only feel they're winning when they see someone else worse off (even at cost to themselves), so the knowledge that they're annoying people actively gives them life.
It would be especially sweet if it was a motorcycle cop writing those tickets. Though if I were a cop, I wouldn't want to be a motorcycle cop because they have a higher fatality rate.
As a motorcyclist, I'm firmly in the camp about quiet, stock pipes.
If I was dictator, I would impound and destroy any vehicle that was too loud.
I dont get why police dont take quality of life crimes more seriously like that. Like if you have a noise problem there is no reason to call the police, they won't show up. What are we paying them for? To write up documents for crimes that happen after the fact?
It's because the police serve the interests of the owning class, and so prioritize things such as corporate property damage and the ability for workers to get to their jobs.
Note that loud exhaust is not an issue in more affluent neighborhoods...
I've been told the number of people driving with loud exhaust is a function of how close you are to the nearest meth house. This is after adjusting the data for level of travel a given road or nearby road
I live near a school (equivalent to middle as well as high school). The rest is a purely residential area.
I feel that living near a school in the morning with mommy driving little Kevin to school in big SUV and little Kevin's older brother revving his engine as much as he can with his car comes probably somewhat close.
My late grandfather was a psychiatric expert doing psych evaluation of candidates for armed forces. His method was largely just chatting with the person for a few minutes and asking general questions. Even that revealed a lot. He didn't tell a lot about the people specifically, he took confidentiality very seriously, but could tell there where a lot of freaks applying, a notable candidate with a straight up American history X nazi tattoo.
I looked into this claim a while ago, and actual research on the subject is equivocal at best. Most often, drivers don't even notice the sound on an already-noisy road or highway, through deliberately sound-dampening windows, over music and conversation, etc. Even if they notice, they don't necessarily know where it's coming from. Even if they know where it's coming from, it doesn't necessarily influence their actions. Some people who say "loud pipes save lives" are just fooling themselves. More often, people who say it know it's not likely to be true, but they say it anyway to put a veneer of respectability over the fact that they like the sound and don't care if it's annoying to others.
You are not alone at all, some of us just accept that shooting people is illegal, even if they deserve to be shot, and just continue to suffer in silence.
The average person just doesn't seem to care. I've observed first hand people feeling unbelievably entitled to force their noise onto others. This includes blasting music on portable speakers while in remote wilderness areas, stomping around in boots while living in a multi-floor apartment, and modified exhaust and emission systems, just to name a few. It's reflective of a pretty sad state of affairs in our culture, the selfish state of which has surfaced in many other ways lately. It frequently gives me Dr. Farnsworth moments [1].
It drives me crazy. I really don't know how other people deal with it. Like my neighbors are so unbelievably loud, its starting to get to me. (I think some cultures identify with being loud?) Or do people just accept a poorer quality of life.
Its pretty much the only reason why I think dense living is a bad idea. People are are to inconsiderate of each other to make it work I think and construction quality is too low. I hate being subjected to other people's noise. I'm a light slight sleeper so it wakes me up or it makes it hard to concentrate or even just relax. I don't want to live on some strangers schedule.
I can go on forever with a huge rant about how terrible noise is. I hate dealing with it. Talking to every person who is just way to loud is like whack a mole with noise.
> Its pretty much the only reason why I think dense living is a bad idea
You can have quiet and soundproofed dense living. It just takes some standards and codes to take it into account.
NotJustBikes recently made a video about how some Dutch cities are taking this very seriously ( like Delft), and how it works ( Cities aren't loud, cars are is the video name). In France good soundproofing is mandatory on new constructions, etc. People and regulators just need to care :)
they won't care, quality of life issues don't matter in the US. Someone will just call you a "karen" or something.
Im skeptical of sound proofing actually working. I think to actually sound proof you need an airgap between walls? This is all really expensive too
But that only stops some sound. If its warm and you need to open your windows all of that effort doesnt matter. Your just stuck hoping you don't have loud neighbors. Right now my neighbor is practicing their saxophone, its loud and grating (and not well played) everyone's windows are open the weather is mild so im stuck listening to it
75% of the reason I live in the country is because of the reasons you listed, as is 100% of the reason I'd never live anyplace other than a single family home.
I don't really get it though, like you want it to be quiet everywhere always? I definitely hate motorcycles or loud cars, but I've never been bothered too much by people noises or music. I've lived in highrises and above a night club and it was ok.
Construction can be annoying and I once lived next door to a tire shop and that was pretty bad, but even things like fireworks don't bother me.
I've lived in nature and on a farm before as well and both are pretty loud. Animals are loud and on the farm chickens, cows and geese can rival and humans noise or music. In nature bird noises are pretty crazy too and the coyotes will wake the dead from about 2-5am.
Silence is too weird, not all sounds are the same. Like chickens are horrible though and not really a natural part of most environments. I don't want to live on a farm. I didnt think cows were to bad when I stayed next to a small farm.
Some how I can deal with fireworks too though i would be pretty irritated if it happened every night and woke me up or something. Loud music drives me crazy, especially if its not music I enjoy. Bass particularly is bad, i struggle to drown it out with noise. I had a neighbor who I guess wanted to dj, the kick drum would go straight through the wall for hours. Cars that drive by with loud music or idle out side my window i found irritating.
Speaker phone conversations bother me, not sure why, i can usually tune out most regular conversations (except when its not in english?), but they also wake me up. Hearing muffled conversation through a wall is distracting. Loud tvs suck. Children screaming is terrible, babies crying etc.. My downstairs neighbor wakes me up when they start yelling at each other at 7am. Closing doors or cabinets or walking is mostly fine for me.
I guess no unnecessary or sudden, loud, repeated noise would be great. Like a car alarm or a child screaming for no reason. I'm not totally sure what the pattern is or what a tolerable noise is or bad noise is. Crickets are nice, i had no problem when i lived next to a lake with frogs or in pr with coqui frogs. Construction is bad.
Bass can wiggle through walls in ways that surprise even the person generating it. Worse, the wall filters out much of the other frequencies that might make it bearable. I think most people with their music rattling through their car doors don't even realize it. Think about it: the only way they would know is if they left the music on, got out, and shut the door. Not a common occurrence.
Plenty of music people think to treat their rooms with the usual foam on the walls, but not everyone thinks (or cares) to treat it with bass traps.
It baffles me as well. It’s exceedingly obvious (to me) how significant an effect it has on wellbeing, yet it seems virtually ignored, particularly in the US. I’ve found that it’s somewhat better in the UK (London), but there’s still a ways to go.
It’s a classic example of a commons. It’s something that benefits everyone, yet is SO easy to wreck for everyone for miles in every direction. There’s a classic article “Silence is a Commons” that has been posted here before; it’s not so much focused on health/wellbeing but makes a similar point: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28431541
Yet if the beat of a metronome will depress intelligence, what do eight or twelve hours of noise, odor, and heat in a factory, or day upon day among chattering typewriters and telephone bells and slamming doors, do to the political judgments formed on the basis of newspapers read in street-cars and subways? Can anything be heard in the hubbub that does not shriek, or be seen in the general glare that does not flash like an electric sign? The life of the city dweller lacks solitude, silence, ease. The nights are noisy and ablaze. The people of a big city are assaulted by incessant sound, now violent and jagged, now falling into unfinished rhythms, but endless and remorseless. Under modern industrialism thought goes on in a bath of noise. If its discriminations are often flat and foolish, here at least is some small part of the reason. The sovereign people determines life and death and happiness under conditions where experience and experiment alike show thought to be most difficult. “The intolerable burden of thought” is a burden when the conditions make it burdensome. It is no burden when the conditions are favorable. It is as exhilarating to think as it is to dance, and just as natural.
Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence. But in that helter-skelter which we flatter by the name of civilization, the citizen performs the perilous business of government under the worst possible conditions."
It'll be interesting to see how electrification of transport changes this. Here in Europe we're phasing out ICE at quite a rate and the proposed euro 7 standards are so strict that it will also alter what the car fleet looks like.
We live on a main road (although it's all relative, it's single lane in both directions and limited to 30mph) and i've already started noticing that the majority of what I hear is now tyre noise.
I'd love a "sound overlay" for regular maps such as GMaps. If people knew typical noise levels across the day and across the year, it would change everything about travel bookings and real estate searches. For something that has such a huge impact on wellbeing, it's incredible how little attention it gets, from governments to individuals.
Also interesting things like Whiteman AFB, from the recent stealth bomber post, shows nothing
Those maps are generated by publicly available data (traffic, railway schedules, etc). In the case of airports/airbases, the data are generated with radar flight tracks. Military flight track data are often redacted (presumably because they can leak aircraft performance data) so it's not surprising that modeled noise from stealth aircraft was not calculated.
The default view doesn't show rail traffic, which also seems to add a lot of heat to the map. I haven't quite understood what the map is based on, but it says 24-hr LAeq - is this a 24-hour average or 24-hour max?
See also the “One Square Inch of Silence” project, which identified and placed a marker signifying what it calls “very possibly the quietest place in the United States”:
There are even audio recordings on the website which indicate the area is actually far from “silent”, but perhaps as close as possible to being absent if any sounds of human civilization.
I drove through Wyoming or someplace like that one time on a less traveled highway and stopped at a gas station. It was flat for as far as the eye could see in all directions and the utter silence that confronted me after stopping the car and getting out was jarring. Absolutely no sound. I remember pausing and taking note of it. Really made an impression on me.
I went on a roadtrip once through the southwest US. The utter silence in many places was one of my favorite parts, as well as the many areas with flat scenery to the horizon. I would often stop at a good view – mapped or not – and just enjoy it, whether or not there was a slight wind at the time and place.
It really is something to turn off your car, walk to a good spot, and feel for a moment like you might be the last person on Earth.
To all those suffering from noise pollution: go to the hardware store and buy foam weatherstripping for your doors and windows in your room experiencing the noise pollution. Door sweeps, white noise machines, and earplugs also help significantly. Cheap, easy, and high ROI. Other than that buy IEMs, for noise reduction I recommend the Etymotic ER2SE or the Sony WF-1000XM4 if you want wireless noise cancelling IEMs
Can be unhealthy. Earmuffs seem to be as effective and, while you can still get damaged (risk of suction), it's difficult.
Issue: earplugs and earmuffs are designed to reduce noise, not to cancel it - to facilitate that you don't get damage from a bang but can still faintly but clearly hear your colleague calling "watch out". And, reduction in background noise amplifies the impactive - not in absolute but in relative amplitude, not in vibrational strength but in presence.
I can't use noise cancelling headphones, at least on-ear and over-ear. I've never liked earbuds/IEM, so I never test them.
However, active earmuffs are amazing. I had my favorite pair finally give out, they had FM radio and an aux jack, but we're not active. It was fun to run a chipper and listen to a podcast, for instance.
For things I want hearing protection I have 4 choices now. The industry standard earplugs, which are foam that you roll and insert - Howard Leight, passive cans style muffs - generic, generic aviator style muffs with active microphones, and a fancy pair of Howard Leight active muffs.
The active ones are amazing. I can't believe I waited so long.
I live someplace so quiet now that I have to run fans or I can't sleep. The silence feels like a huge weight. When there's a widespread power outage I barely get any sleep, for example. I don't know that I could ever live near a thoroughfare ever again, for any amount of money.
Active noise cancelling is placing between ears and source an inverted wave generator.
A soundwave is coming, you intake it with a microphone and attempt producing its inversion in real time in speakers, to cancel it.
As I have written, it may not work properly with impactive noise - it can do the opposite, because the impactive sound is cleaner. Or, it may be calibrated for impactive noise - so there exist earmuffs that recognize shooting sounds at their inception, to reduce these selectively.
They're like shooting muffs/cans, except they have a microphone on each side, batteries, and an amplifier. when it's off, they're regular hearing protection. When you turn them on, you can adjust the volume from "slightly lower than without the muffs on", to "actual volume", to "hear a cricket fart across the street". When a loud sound is detected - say, clapping, gunfire, hitting an anvil - it shuts off the amplifier.
As an aside, since your ears are not ringing / recovering from a very loud sound, and the amplifier turns back on very quickly, you can hear the reverberations, echos, and sympathetic resonances. It's quite cool.
One can already tell you some factors deductively (and verifiedly): it's not the density, it's the presence. Mass is phonoabsorbent; there where you have buildings, you have both noise from the inhabitants and shielding from the constructions.
In the open spaces, one single source can pollute for even ten kilometers or five miles of distance, and more. The added effects of natural acoustics can be worsening - barkings bouncing in the echo from valley to valley, starting in front and returning behind etc.
> The trend is higher sound levels in wetter areas with more vegetation. This is due to the sounds of wind blowing through vegetation, flowing water, and more animals (especially birds and frogs) vocalizing in more fertile locations.
I find those sorts of natural sounds to be way less annoying and offensive than machine-originated sounds, even at equal decibel levels. Perhaps it’s because of a learned/cultural associations, but I’d bet there’s something inherently annoying to most manmade sounds, probably due to the periodic nature of motors, fans, etc. I’d be interested in the above suggested diff map showing (approximately) machine-originated sound levels.
I was noticing the same thing. Equally easy to pick out the major US cities. In the West, anyway ... where the lack of major oceanside cities above San Fran is especially notable. (Why is that?)
Lack of well-protected harbors north of the Bay Area.
As you move North the winter storms get more and more fierce. You have to go pretty far inland (Portland or Puget Sound) to reach calm waters and a low enough wind speed to hold down construction costs for tall buildings.
The closest thing to an exception is Grays Harbor, which is topographically equivalent to the SF Bay but extremely shallow -- much too shallow for container ships. They have to dredge it every few years just to get the ag/lumber/automobile ships into the port.
Being next to the ocean up in the PNW sucks ass. Windy, misty cold for 10 months and then 7 weeks of windy and misty. You get 1 week of pleasant weather spread through the 7.
That's what I found strange honestly. I don't know why but I always thought the west coast was great weather. But it sucks. Only southern California had ok weather, but even then the beaches weren't great and the water was cold in summer. The farther North it was like borderline miserable weather.
I guess the weather comparison trope is based on New York and places that it snows a lot, but so much of the US has a far better climate than the west coast.
Where I am it never ever gets hot and it gets below freezing maybe two or three nights a year. When it's warm it's never humid (dry summers) and the only time it's humid is when it rains, which happens pretty much all winter. I kinda like that. Nights are cool (55F or below) every night, even in the middle of summer, which makes for comfortable sleeping.
The main downside IMO is the short days in the winter, but that's really latitude rather than weather.
Yeah, it definitely depends on what you like and I get that different people like different types of weather. To me though, that sounds pretty miserable, except for the dry summer, except it's not hot so not great for doing summer activities.
Just wondering, have you lived anywhere with a different climate?
Not surprising that my area, 12 miles from NYC, is one of the noisiest places in the country. A little more surprising is that it's still the noisiest just from natural sources.
Luckily, my tinnitus is noisier than both, so it doesn't matter where I live. I can't tell the difference.
It's been a long time since I watched that video, but I believe he makes the point that actually even electric cars are quite loud at speed. The noise from the tires is substantial.
No, as someone who used to live next to an expressway (45-50 mph traffic), the problem is 95% tire noise. Modern cars not accelerating make very little noise from the ICE.
The tires are like nails on a chalkboard to me after living that way for a 5 years. It cut through my apartment walls and morning rush hour served as a mandatory alarm clock.
The only time engines were an issue were people with modded exhaust or people street racing (motorcycles or cars).
This is why I always think it is funny when the topic of creating fake engine noise for electric cars for safety comes up. On a normal modern car you won’t likely hear the engine unless under heavy acceleration.
The tire sounds are way less at low speeds. Where the sound matters for safety is where people are and around corners and situational changes. These moments tend to be where speed is Low and varying. As well of the type of sound. If you hear a revving engine come towards your direction you pay it attention.
This is why it is useful for cars to make sounds. It also is the reason why that sound is so annoying. It is a constant trigger for our brains to react.
Much smaller population of apartments with loud speaker systems than cars driving in the city and even honking.
Cars are the biggest source of pollution in US cities, noise, particulate and visual. The early days of the pandemic in almost any city showed this so clearly.
I lived between a freeway and a railroad track. There's no comparison. Cars are a little annoying; trains overpower your entire body. It is a visceral presence.
Video is specifically the claim that cities CAN be quiet, and it gives examples of quiet, dense cities. The title is "Cities aren't loud, cars are loud."
It might be the scale that’s important though. An energy consumption map would be similar to population density but the scale probably changes over time (more energy efficient devices, etc).
Also it would be interesting to see outliers - what areas don’t scale with population as much and why (policies, etc)?
Weird that the National Park Service omits Alaska and Hawaii from their maps, especially given that Alaska has national parks that are larger than some entire states.
Probably not in Alaska outside of anc but Oahu is an absolute zoo and has some of the worst traffic I’ve ever experienced. Noise would absolutely be a big issue there.
The woods and their quiet are never far away here. While cross country skiing, I often stop to listen to the wind and take in the mountains. After living in a metropolis where noise was a constant, I appreciate the peace and calm of nature, far from cars and planes and other human noise-makers.
I live in one of the quietest places available in the southeast. When I got into towns the pressure of the people sounds is noticeable. Even if Im there early when its actually quiet and everybody's asleep, its a different environment where your heartbeat echos too loud and the mice move quietly instead of rustling the leaves.
Its not that quiet in the woods, as others have said, its just a different set of noises and a different feel and extent to how they propagate. My wife can't tell a difference between the coyotes singing close to us or a mile away down the valley.
With the exception of the pine plantations. Big patches of pine can get spooky quiet; they muffle sound well, coat the ground with needles that dont say much, and few things really party there. Woodpeckers punctuate the afternoon.
My house is pretty quiet, except on occasion a jet or two flies overhead at around 1000 feet. They used to fly the FA-18, but have recently transitioned to the F-35. I believe, from personal experience, that the F-35 is quite a bit louder. I've seen inconsistent reports on the web though.
They're doing construction on a bunch of new houses closer to the base. The planes fly lower than 1000 feet there. Part of the new development's area is deemed uninhabitable because of the bases noise study. So they put commercial developments (restaurants, shops, etc.) in that area.
I don't want to sound like a NIMBY, and I think building housing is more important, but it was interesting seeing how sound studies and regulation works. Also looking to see if the future residents will be complaining about the noise.
This is a really reassuring resource for those times when it feels like the walls are closing in.
I will say though after living in the middle of the desert for the better part of a decade the silence (more mental / social than literal) did start to make me crazy. Not like manic or anxious crazy but more out of sync with the world of the living and the bearing on time. It was tempting but luckily I needed to find more stable work.
Oddly now that I'm back in a dense urban area its quieter in a lot of ways too in terms of barking dogs and generally loud neighbors. Much denser but different etiquette maybe. Its an interesting phenomena that Ive observed pretty consistently.
That said the comments here seem to be more centered on wilderness silence not urban vs rural silence. But it got me thinking.
Is there a similar map for light pollution? I’m excited Ben trying to find a good place around me to look at the stars at night, just got into stargazing.
One abiding memory I have is visiting a desert in the Middle East. Sitting on top of a hill, looking over the flat landscape, there was no evidence of human habitation as far as the eye could see. More remarkable was the complete silence…, no wind, no sound of birds… nothing at all. The overwhelming impression was that I was in the middle of a huge stage. Sublime.
> Also, it is not feasible for NSNSD to collect samples at all park sites within a reasonable time. Therefore, NSNSD created a geospatial model that predicts soundscapes in parks across the nation.
I’m not sure whether the clatter of (ironed) hooves on cobblestone combined with the carriage wheels on stone plus the grind of the axles was so much quieter. It’s just that there are so many more sources of sound around us within our daily habitat that it is hard too escape it.
Even in our relatively quiet city life (no heavy industry) people already seem adapted that they have trouble sleeping in our country side where it is relatively dark and quiet.
I think you are right, it probably wasn't. Since people are good at adapting then "new normal" for them is the noisy world.
On the other hand, a place I currently live in, almost no one keeps horses, cows, chickens etc, anymore, which are audible. Only a handful of dogs which love to bark. When every household was a private farm it had to be much louder around here! It's not as simple as I thought.
I love being in the woods / fields / lakes. Fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. when you’re out there for a while you realize how much noise there really is. I wish everyone could / would take a few days a month and just spend it in the the natural world.
I feel revived after spending a day or two listening to the leaves blowing. As some have pointed out here, going back to civilization is hard. The noise doesn’t necessarily bother me on a conscious level, but it eats my focus and drains me throughout the day. Almost creating a tension, just from the constant sounds and being alert.