Study: City Noise Is Making Us DEAF

Noise: it's annoying... but now it's also dangerous! According to a new study, New Yorkers are exposed to dangerous levels of street noise each day, which over time can be damaging. Columbia professor and one of the study's authors, Robyn Gershon, says, “That’s the problem with noise. It sneaks up on you. It’s a hidden hazard and a hidden health outcome.”

Part of the study included researchers standing in 60 different spots (some of which had been sites of noise complaints) in Manhattan, measuring noise levels from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Most readings, even in parks (which are supposed to be tranquil, dammit) had readings of 70 decibels or more. Daily exposure to these types of levels can lead to hearing loss... not to mention the stress!

The outcome of the study suggests "that people have no place to go to get that quiet." Especially not along the city’s truck routes at First Avenue above 14th Street and along Broadway in Inwood. Those spots, along with Times Square and East Midtown, were the noisiest areas. Time to buy some noise-canceling headphones.

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By Jen Carlson in News on October 27, 2010 5:26 PM

Comments [rss]

rammyh

MTA buses, and the sanitation street cleaners are INSANELY LOUD. Also, every friggin' truck driving through the city has some sort of issues with its brakes/engines/mufflers.

Usually I'm inured to the noise, but on days when I walk my kid to school I realize how loud all the traffic is because I can't hear a thing she's saying and I'm yelling at her just to have a conversation.

Phil

What about asshole frat boys making all kinds of shouts, screeches, yelps, whoops and hyena and jackel like laughs till all hours of the night, every motherfucking night? And neither pleading nor threats shut them up? And the cops don't give a flying fuck!

nicemarmot

I came up with a solution to asshole honkers years ago. Set up the horn so that the honker hears it blasting right back in his face in addition to outside the car. That'll stop those fucks from honking every five seconds. "If I honk seven hundred times, the completely stopped traffic will magically disappear!"

Matthew

Knee-jerk horn blowers are another problem; a one millisecond delay behind the wheel will results in a 5 second blow of the horn. There are signs indicating fines for such behavior, but they seem be ignored for the most part. I guess people don't have problems blowing horns when its not their neighborhood.

ides_of_march

One thing I appreciated about Paris is the rubber tires on the Metro. The trains quietly swoosh into the station. The screeching metal on the NYC subway, however, is loud and piercing enough to wake the dead and give them a migraine.

handsomedevil

"One thing I appreciated about Paris is the rubber tires on the Metro. Oh, and tasting a real scone for the first time - it was delightful!"

Yeah yeah, Ides, he know you "heart" Paris. Give it a rest already.

cmdrogogov

Yes, you know.. that place which invests in public transport like most other european countries and doesn't rely on an outmoded, outdated, antisocial and environmentally catastrophic policy of pushing automobiles for every transport need under the sun.

Phil

Scone? What country are you in?

handsomedevil

Hey, I'm in AMERICA buddy. Unlike Ides I don't go for all that effete European nonsense. Toy trains, berets, croissants, le whatever.