I think it’s important to differentiate (as this website does) the human made noise from the natural.<p>I love being in the woods / fields / lakes. Fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. when you’re out there for a while you realize how much noise there really is. I wish everyone could / would take a few days a month and just spend it in the the natural world.<p>I feel revived after spending a day or two listening to the leaves blowing. As some have pointed out here, going back to civilization is hard. The noise doesn’t necessarily bother me on a conscious level, but it eats my focus and drains me throughout the day. Almost creating a tension, just from the constant sounds and being alert.
It pains me that noise pollution isn't taken as seriously as other forms of environmental damage when it's the one that most directly impacts (urban) people's quality of life.
I'd love a "sound overlay" for regular maps such as GMaps. If people knew typical noise levels across the day and across the year, it would change everything about travel bookings and real estate searches. For something that has such a huge impact on wellbeing, it's incredible how little attention it gets, from governments to individuals.
See also the “One Square Inch of Silence” project, which identified and placed a marker signifying what it calls “very possibly the quietest place in the United States”:<p><a href="https://onesquareinch.org/" rel="nofollow">https://onesquareinch.org/</a><p>There are even audio recordings on the website which indicate the area is actually far from “silent”, but perhaps as close as possible to being absent if any sounds of human civilization.
I drove through Wyoming or someplace like that one time on a less traveled highway and stopped at a gas station. It was flat for as far as the eye could see in all directions and the utter silence that confronted me after stopping the car and getting out was jarring. Absolutely no sound. I remember pausing and taking note of it. Really made an impression on me.
To all those suffering from noise pollution: go to the hardware store and buy foam weatherstripping for your doors and windows in your room experiencing the noise pollution. Door sweeps, white noise machines, and earplugs also help significantly. Cheap, easy, and high ROI. Other than that buy IEMs, for noise reduction I recommend the Etymotic ER2SE or the Sony WF-1000XM4 if you want wireless noise cancelling IEMs
This is almost interchangeable with a light pollution map. E.g. <a href="http://www.cleardarksky.com/maps/lp/large_light_pollution_map.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.cleardarksky.com/maps/lp/large_light_pollution_ma...</a> Funny how often human effects on the environment correlate with human population density.
Not surprising that my area, 12 miles from NYC, is one of the noisiest places in the country. A little more surprising is that it's still the noisiest just from natural sources.<p>Luckily, my tinnitus is noisier than both, so it doesn't matter where I live. I can't tell the difference.
Weird that the National Park Service omits Alaska and Hawaii from their maps, especially given that Alaska has national parks that are larger than some entire states.<p>Ah, well.
> across the country<p>I guess Alaska didn’t make the cut.<p>The woods and their quiet are never far away here. While cross country skiing, I often stop to listen to the wind and take in the mountains. After living in a metropolis where noise was a constant, I appreciate the peace and calm of nature, far from cars and planes and other human noise-makers.
Cicada not included.<p>I live in one of the quietest places available in the southeast. When I got into towns the pressure of the people sounds is noticeable. Even if Im there <i>early</i> when its actually quiet and everybody's asleep, its a <i>different environment</i> where your heartbeat echos too loud and the mice move quietly instead of rustling the leaves.<p>Its not that quiet in the woods, as others have said, its just a different set of noises and a different feel and extent to how they propagate. My wife can't tell a difference between the coyotes singing close to us or a mile away down the valley.<p>With the exception of the pine plantations. Big patches of pine can get spooky quiet; they muffle sound well, coat the ground with needles that dont say much, and few things really party there. Woodpeckers punctuate the afternoon.
My house is pretty quiet, except on occasion a jet or two flies overhead at around 1000 feet. They used to fly the FA-18, but have recently transitioned to the F-35. I believe, from personal experience, that the F-35 is quite a bit louder. I've seen inconsistent reports on the web though.<p>They're doing construction on a bunch of new houses closer to the base. The planes fly lower than 1000 feet there. Part of the new development's area is deemed uninhabitable because of the bases noise study. So they put commercial developments (restaurants, shops, etc.) in that area.<p>I don't want to sound like a NIMBY, and I think building housing is more important, but it was interesting seeing how sound studies and regulation works. Also looking to see if the future residents will be complaining about the noise.
This is a really reassuring resource for those times when it feels like the walls are closing in.<p>I will say though after living in the middle of the desert for the better part of a decade the silence (more mental / social than literal) did start to make me crazy. Not like manic or anxious crazy but more out of sync with the world of the living and the bearing on time. It was tempting but luckily I needed to find more stable work.<p>Oddly now that I'm back in a dense urban area its quieter in a lot of ways too in terms of barking dogs and generally loud neighbors. Much denser but different etiquette maybe. Its an interesting phenomena that Ive observed pretty consistently.<p>That said the comments here seem to be more centered on wilderness silence not urban vs rural silence. But it got me thinking.
Is there a similar map for light pollution? I’m excited Ben trying to find a good place around me to look at the stars at night, just got into stargazing.
One abiding memory I have is visiting a desert in the Middle East. Sitting on top of a hill, looking over the flat landscape, there was no evidence of human habitation as far as the eye could see. More remarkable was the complete silence…, no wind, no sound of birds… nothing at all. The overwhelming impression was that I was in the middle of a huge stage. Sublime.
I get odd looks, but for large parts of the day at the office I wear 3M hearing protectors like this:<p><a href="https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/b00037383/" rel="nofollow">https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/b00037383/</a><p>I just like _quiet_ and there are so many things around that make noise.
For Americans, there is also an [interactive] traffic noise map from US DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics:<p><a href="https://maps.dot.gov/BTS/NationalTransportationNoiseMap/" rel="nofollow">https://maps.dot.gov/BTS/NationalTransportationNoiseMap/</a>
Anyone else notice this?<p>> Also, it is not feasible for NSNSD to collect samples at all park sites within a reasonable time. Therefore, NSNSD created a geospatial <i>model that predicts soundscapes</i> in parks across the nation.<p>Doesn’t that defeat the intent of measuring?
I often have this thought of how different the world sounded when combustion engines (cars, motorcycles, planes, tractors, etc) weren't ubiquitous.<p>I happily grew up in the 80s in a place (communist Poland, so rather small car ownership) with very little artificial noise, but that is gone now.<p>How was it hundreds of years ago?