Photo credit: Sean MacEntee licensed under CC BY 2.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This piece from the Dublin Inquirer reports that noise levels have doubled there in the past four years. The Quiet Coalition’s Rick Neitzel, on the faculty of the University of Michigan, is cited in the piece. His work showed that noise levels in New York City are high enough to cause hearing loss. This is also true in other large cities.
Some urban noise is a necessary concomitant of modern life. But cities can be made quieter.
As the article states, most urban noise comes from traffic. Enforcement of muffler regulations, appropriate combinations of tire and pavement materials, elimination of horn-based alerts, and enforcement of laws against horn use except to prevent an accident are all options to make cities quieter, as are more trees and bushes to help absorb and block road traffic noise.
