According to the Environmental Protection Agencyís Office of Noise and Abatement Control (which disappeared during the Reagan Administration) in order to protect from hearing loss, one should not be exposed to more than 70 dB for an extended period of time. Meanwhile the average city traffic is 85 decibels and in larger cities like New York, the noise level often exceeds 90db. Les Bloomberg, director of Noise Pollution Clearinghouse in Montpelier Vermont, has stated that "87% of Americaís city dwellers are exposed to noise so loud it has the potential to degrade hearing capacity over time."
It is therefore imperative that we continue to push for a decrease in vehicle travel to reduce vehicle noise. Because we cannot expect everyone to want to ride ten miles to work, however, we must not only push for an increase in bike lanes and mass transit, but also for intelligent development. This development should encourage the increase of mass transit, bike, and foot travel, through proper planning and zoning, as well as the use of parks and increased vegetation to decrease the amount of noise.
As an example, Boulder, Colorado comes to mind. Parks and green spaces are dispersed throughout the city, and I didnít have much trouble navigating my way around town on bike. And from what I could gather, the mass transit system is effective (thatís saying a lot for a mass transit system in the United States) and only seems to be getting better. Most importantly (for the purpose of this article), it was probably the quietest city of its size that Iíve visited.
We must create a society and lifestyle that caters to the bike and walking, and not to the steel beast. We must make urban sprawl a thing of the past and instead concentrate our growth in an intelligent manner. Stop building intimidatingly wide roads with no sidewalks through subdivisions and then connecting each subdivision with downtown by means of superhighways. Instead, widen the sidewalks and bike lanes and narrow the roads. Intermingle places of commerce with places of residence so getting a quart of milk isnít a six-mile trip. Reestablish the idea of parks and green zones to be used as buffers against noise. Replace the parking meters with trees and the parking spots with shrubbery. Turn the parking lots into parks and put a bus stop at every one. Beginning to sound like a bit of a dream? Well, hey, only about a hundred years ago, so was the idea of a car.