Photo credit: Pixabay
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
The Washington Post published a wonderful interactive online article with restaurant sound levels. This is the Post’s second article about restaurant noise that I know about, although there may have been others. The article may be behind the newspaper’s paywall.
The article was written by Post audio producer Bishop Sand and his colleagues. It discusses a dinner with Lily Wang, who runs the acoustics program at the University of Nebraska, and the Post’s restaurant critic, Tom Sietsma. Wang is a past president of the Acoustical Society of America and Sietsma started including decibel levels in his restaurant reviews 2008.
As the article discusses, restaurant noise is a complex issue. People want auditory privacy from those speaking at the next table, but want to be able to converse with people at their own table. They want a lively restaurant, but not a too-noisy restaurant. Regardless, more articles about the problem of restaurant noise are appearing in the media, and that may help those of us who want quieter restaurants achieve our goals.
Quieter restaurants will be part of a quieter world, which will be a better and healthier place for all.
