i m living around 500m from a national road – the N90 – in floreffe – a village around 65kms south of brussels, 15km west of namur
it s not a very important road compared to roads around the capital but the noise really is – it starts every day around 5h30 and it never ends until 22h30 – sure i can sleep with the window open but will wake up with the noise of cars
i tried to imagine the waves of cars like waves of the sea – but that didn t do the trick unfortunately
numerous studies have shown that noise contributes to sleep disturbance, to the development of arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmia, metabolic syndrome and stroke (for review see [2]) and also to learning, respectively emotional difficulties in children [3].
US National Library of Medicine / National Institutes of Health
real luxury is silence
when i write this post – we re in #lockdown because of covid-19 – the traffic during the first weeks of the lockdown was far less than normal – it was a revelation to me that i could sleep until 6 o’clock and to be woken up by birds instead of cars
car noises comes from numerous sources : the engine inlet – exhaust – fan – transmission – aerodynamic – road surface – tyres – brakes – body rattles – all of that influenced by weather situations, speed and load
The noise of a vehicle traveling at moderate to high speeds on dry roads increases with speed at between 6 and 12 dB(A) per doubling of speed.
Rolling noise and vehicle noise – DG Harland
from 1 to 40kms an hour noise comes mostly from the engine – that needs to make a lot of tours/minute to make your ton of steel move…
but the real big noise is starting when the car is actually moving – tyres in contact with the surface and aerodynamics are taking over to producing a deafening sound – any sound above 85db can cause hearing loss
noise makes you sick
i heard a researcher on the radio telling that every year 10.000 people in europe prematurely die because of excessive noise that is produced by cars – waw !! (note : i have not been able to verify this information until today…)
that would mean for the world around another 250.000 deaths per year !!
people wake up during the night because of excessive engine and tire noise from speedy vehicles driving by – get too tired, exhausted, depressed, get diseases like high blood pressure – just with endless noise of the tires hitting the ears and the mind
the association between (noise) annoyance and mental health disorders (…) is very strong and the researchers say their results are ‘compatible’ with the hypothesis that annoyance leads to stress, which in turn can lead to depression and anxiety, or worsen existing symptoms.
ec.europa.eu
the noise is silently making people mentally ill and slowly killing them
let s face it – we flee the city (in our cars) in search for calm and silence – but driving to those pleasant places of silence – we literally make tens of thousands of people crazy with the noise of our tyres and bad aerodynamics
forbid cars and bring silence back