The older I get, the less tolerant of urban noise. When I was single, I lived in the middle of Houston and it was noisy AF. Sirens, helicopters, traffic, random human outbursts, etc but now married and banished to the suburbs and I appreciate the quiet. Even if this area has no personality.

Sirens and motorcycles are the biggest noise source for me (1.5 blocks from, with line of sight, to Roosevelt Station). If I open my window at night, I can hear the station announcements though (I think they're supposed to stop being so loud after 10 pm, but they forget sometimes). But still the sirens and motorcycles are much worse. I don't know how small the motorcyclists dicks must be that they make so much noise.

yes, that would be a problem.

fortunately, the human brain is a phenomenally adaptive organ.

the el trains rolling down our alley kept me awake at times for about the first two weeks after we moved in. my wife took a little longer to adjust, about a month or so. our kids seemed unfazed by it.

it helps that the el noise is a deep rumbling thunder-type sound which, while loud, can be much easier for the brain to block out than the more piercing sounds of an ambulance siren, for example.

however, i'm sure that people who live across the street from hospitals with emergency rooms eventually learn to block out ambulance sirens too.

we really are pretty amazingly adaptable little creatures, and a lot of people who say things like "i could never put up with that" are mostly talking out of their asses, because if they actually lived with it long enough, their brains would learn to put up with it.

now, that doesn't mean that people aren't allowed their preferences, and that those who feel they are more sensitive to noise than others shouldn't seek out what they want, i'm just pointing out that our brains can learn to do some pretty amazing things all on their own, even things we erroneously believe they can't do. like block out el trains rumbling down your alley every 5 minutes all night long.

A big part of that is the regularity of the noise. I grew up next to the 401 freeway (busiest in North America, etc, etc), and was very much acclimated to the constant, round-the-clock roar of traffic.

I now live on a busier street downtown with general constant noise, but the only real problem are the garbage trucks that roll through a couple times a few nights a week (it's fine if my window is closed though).

Aside from those 3AM garbage pickups though, I'm otherwise quite fond of the perpetual "urban symphony" happening outside my window though. The muffled din of conversation, laughter, and music from the patio next door; the rumble of passing streetcars; the occasional siren; my upstairs neighbours' dog running around - love it all.

At 30 floors up I've grown to love the white noise of the nearby Gardiner Expressway. Might be a different story if I was below the 10th floor right adjacent too it, but as of now the only time I hear a distinguishable noise is when a motorcycle or some rich kid in their Ferrari goes full throttle up the on-ramp. Annoying for the 5 seconds if you're trying to fall asleep, but not enough to wake me up.

Streetside in an older residential neighbourhood is different though. Too much variety of noises at inconsistent times. I absolutely can't deal with screaming kids or barking dogs.

My brain does very different things with "necessary" noise like traffic or construction vs. loud stereos, car alarms, leaf blowers at 6:30 am, barking dogs, etc. The second group pisses me off. Three are minimal due to my location (dense but the interior of a block), and barking dogs get dealt with by my condo association.

Several years ago I lived 200' from a viaduct in central Seattle (the one being demo'd right now). That was good noise...the constant roar drowned out a lot of the annoying noise.

good point.


the el trains in our alley don't faze me.

but the obnoxious dickwads who roll around town on their open pipe harleys?

those guys should go fuck themselves.

I think CPD should be allowed to do target practice on the open pipe Harleys.

Loud pipes save lives doe. Huhuhu.

The only thing more annoying might be coal rollers.

I don't mind the noise of traffic going by under my upper-floor corner unit. The streetcars a block away aren't noticeable unless they use their air horns to get somebody off the trackway. Airplanes and helicopters are intermittent in terms of noise--sometimes I hear them, usually I don't.

I really hate the unmuffled motorcycles. Those guys are basically the aural equivalent to the assholes smoking cigars in public spaces: "See what I can do to you? Doesn't it suck? Ha ha!" It's even worse when the motorcycle racket sets off car alarms.

On busier nights, we probably get a good dozen loud siren runs past our place between work and bedtime. There are other sirens in the area as well, but as long as the emergency vehicles don't stop nearby, they can be manageable and unobtrusive (if they stop nearby, however, everyone in the 'hood rushes to the windows).

I usually can't manage to sleep through the super-noisy 5:00 am garbage truck runs, but that lasts fewer than five minutes and I'm back to sleep. If I'm awake, I usually notice barking dogs and obnoxiously loud people, but I don't when I'm sleeping.

Overall, I am accustomed to the noise of the city, and I too don't care for silent places. I'm used to the urban symphony, even if there are too many 'virtuosos' at times.

Loud motorcycles and loud stereos...yeah those are douchebags.

I'm about 10 houses away from the MoPac tracks in north Austin. It's freight trains all day and night, along with Amtrak several times. Next to the tracks is the MoPac expressway/tollway. I'm right under an incoming flight path for approaches to the airport, and the aircraft are at 2,000 to 3,000 ft as they fly over.

When I'm outside, it's noisy as hell. Trains, planes, motorcycles, cars, trucks, sirens. I love the sound of the Amtrak trains, though, as well as the planes. The freight trains are ok unless an engine is idling near by (I absolutely hate that). Until I replaced my old single pane windows, all the noise came inside. And the freight trains caused the windows to rattle. Once I replaced the windows with good quality double panes, all of the sounds are gone except for the one thing I hate...the idling locomotives. That sound penetrates and drives me crazy if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night. I've tried my noise canceling headphones but they're uncomfortable. So I just put up with that.

None of this seems to have any effect on property values except for the houses immediately adjacent to the tracks.

Just thought of something. Before I replaced my windows, one thing that was nuts was garbage trucks emptying dumpsters in the middle of the night. I'm about 1500 ft from the nearest location where this happens, (along a major commercial strip) but when they put the dumpsters down, it's incredibly loud. I don't know if anyone else mentioned this yet.

Being I've been with NoiseFreeAmerica for many years, they've given me updates, over the years, on what cities are doing to tackle loud stereo's in cars, which are referred to as Noise Terrorists.

In Oregon, if you "show off" a loud stereo in your car, it's a $1500 fine, and in some jurisdictions the fines have escalated to $2500, and in some jurisdictions, they can impound the vehicle, and in some places in the Deep South, they can even throw you into jail. The decibel levels from some of these car stereo's can reach 140 decibels, beyond the threshold of pain. But they're quite easy to get out of your neighborhood, providing they don't park in a garage.:notacrook:

In Edmonton, Alberta they now have Noise Radar, similar to Speed Radar, whereas you can get a ticket in the mail for having a loud muffle or loud stereo in your car.

The last mayor of NYC, I understand, went on a campaign to make NYC the quietest big city in the country. Car alarms are illegal in NYC, due to excessive vandalism of people annoyed with them waking them up in the middle of the night. Boom cars, no way! And I saw the signs on my last trip to NYC: $350 fine for honking your horn in a residential neighborhood. And I understand police sirens were banned, but ambulance/fire truck sirens were not banned.

People don't realize that Noise is a health hazard. Go ahead an laugh: Extra loud noises can even trigger heart attacks in some people.

My apartment building backs onto Shanghai's Outer Ring Expressway, which is 4 lanes of jammed or congested traffic in each direction more than 16 hours a day. Sure, with the windows open you get some traffic noise in the bedroom, but with the windows closed most of the sound is pretty much eliminated. And being 24 floors up keeps the noise down quite significantly all by itself.

Only real noise I've had to deal with in my apartment since moving in here several months ago was the nearly constant barrage of firecrackers/fireworks every evening from a couple of weeks before the 4th of July all the way through early August. ;) It's amazing how much Chicagoans love to blow things up! Haha

Aaron (Glowrock)

Chicago is unbelievably affordable for a city of its size and scope. I took a stroll through the Wrigleyville area just east of the Redline Addison stop and found numerous listings around 300k and rent as low as $1200. Quiet residential streets, nice trees, walking distance to the El, $1200. This would be around $3,000-4,000 in Southern California.

There's a ton of new condos/apts being built in Marina del Rey. Word of mouth is that the rent is $7,800/month.

One of my apartments in Boston was across the street from a Green Line surface T stop. At that intersection, pedestrians and Boston drivers [which, let's admit it, suck] would constantly block the tracks when the T had the signal to proceed.

Instead of the polite trolley "ding ding" you would get the conductor blaring the train horn. Leaning on the horn for 5, 10, 15 seconds. This would happen at 5:30am, 11:30pm -- basically anytime the T was operating.

Like you said, the first 2 weeks, it would wake me up, afterwards I could sleep through anything, including a fire alarm. The FD was in the building by the time I got up and evacuated.

Yesterday reminded me of this thread. I was at a drive-thru(horror, I know) and a jet interrupted my order and the worker just said repeat...then we were interrupted again so she said repeat again.

I seriously forgot how loud those jets are in Virginia Beach. You could be screaming your order and it still wouldn't be heard.

Yeah, the police here in America using radar to fine people for loud music isn't going to work. It may be a law on the book, but it won't be widely enforced. It will be turned into a "racially charged law" or whatever else the media will think up.

the noise of the city is nothing compared to the 100db of my partner snoring loudly next to me, so i wear earplugs. lol