Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Technology

How Noisy Is Your Neighborhood? Now There's A Map For That (npr.org) 40

An anonymous reader share an NPR article: There's no denying it: Los Angeles isn't exactly gentle on the ears. That's one lesson, at least, from a comprehensive noise map created by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. On the interactive U.S. map the agency released this week, which depicts data on noise produced primarily by airports and interstate highways, few spots glare with such deep and angry color as the City of Angels. Blame the area's handful of major airports and its legendary snarls of traffic -- ranked this year as the worst in the nation.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

How Noisy Is Your Neighborhood? Now There's A Map For That

Comments Filter:
  • by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Friday March 24, 2017 @05:10PM (#54105621)

    Airports and interstates don't bother me much; and I am near both (2 miles from an International airport, 1 mile from a major interstate).

    What DOES bother me are:

    * Motorcycles and cars/trucks with illegal exhaust modifications
    * Dogs barking from neighbors
    * Boom-box bass cars, which I can hear a MILE AWAY sometimes
    * Unnecessary sirens

    None of that is on the map.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Illegal exhaust and boom boxes are a law enforcement issue. e.g. compare Santa Ana with Irvine.

      Dogs are subject to ultrasound, easy to manage.

      And the sirens are new to me. You are suggesting that running the siren when going to fire is unnecessary? Or that agencies without need run their sirens?

      Sounds like another law enforcement problem. Find a better city to live in.

      • How do you suggest getting rid of the boom box bass cars? You hear them from a mile away, cannot see them, do not know exactly where they are because low frequencies are omnidirectional and by the time you call cops they'll either tell you there's nothing they can do about it without a license plate number and/or they can't stop people because of "freedom of expression" or some other shit.

      • >"Illegal exhaust and boom boxes are a law enforcement issue. e.g. compare Santa Ana with Irvine."

        And here nothing is done about it, and it won't change.

        >"Dogs are subject to ultrasound, easy to manage."

        Not easy when not your dogs. Trust me, I tried.

        >"And the sirens are new to me. You are suggesting that running the siren when going to fire is unnecessary? Or that agencies without need run their sirens?"

        Yes. I estimate 75% of the time they are running with sirens unnecessarily; the lights are eno

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Add military operations to the list, too.
      I used to live in Fallbrook, CA. Even miles away, artillery sounded like a thunderstorm. Try to sleep with the windows open at night and the sound of machine gun fire, helicopters, and artillery going off every hour until morning.

    • by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

      There is definitely relativity to noise. Once I lived half a block from the interstate, just outside of downtown Chicago. Despite the constant hum, I almost never noticed it, other than the very occasional semi hitting the engine brakes hard, and even that was just kind of a pronounced note out of the background mishmash.

      Now I live outside a town of 20,000, in a tiny subdivision, and ten times a day I'm thinking to myself, "What are those crazy neighbors up to?" when they do anything at all, because it's ge

    • Fortunately I don't hear many sirens and none I would consider unnecessary but those other things bother me, mostly the neighbors. Occasionally military aircraft flies overhead but not too often but those things are really loud.

      Since I live in a townhome the worst is the walls were thinner than I expected when I moved in. I would love to find out there was some rating of sound insulation between units that could be looked up. For future reference of course, but I really want a freestanding home on its ow

    • Yep, my neighbor has 2 monster pickup trucks in his driveway that cause my windows to vibrate and 4 ATVs parked under his deck in the backyard. Don't think I'd see that on the map.
    • by chihowa ( 366380 )

      I'd add "all unnecessary police activity" to that list. Where I live, the police justify owning their helicopter(s?) by circling them low over different parts of town during the night. I've heard that they were looking for grow operations, which is such a good fucking reason for waking up tens of thousands of people every night, but pot is now legal here and they still do it, so I'm not sure what their current excuse is.

  • This web viewer seems to be inferior even to a properly set up umn mapserver. The UI is actually decent, but the refresh speed is quite poor.

    On the other hand, the map is crap. They're not even taking into account my muni airport which hosts the medi chopper.

    • They're using arcgis, same as every other government mapping website. During peak hours it is sometimes a little slow, but mostly it works fine. It isn't a different speed than other things, though.

      When I was panning the map around, it all loaded very quickly; certainly more quickly than that other mapping company with all the letters.

  • ...they're about the worst.

  • What's up with the star pattern outside of Santa Fe, nm. Is that where the allien space craft land?

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. -- Isaac Asimov

Working...