I live in a city on a busy road. It's never quiet. Most of America, in fact, spends their lives in an urban soundscape--some on quieter streets than others. A few have a way of tuning out the noise that surrounds them every day or to draw inspiration and energy from it but not many living an urban lifestyle can claim to be living in quiet. Can you? How do you do it?
Quiet. I don't remember how it "sounds." How many of us can say that we do? If we're not already a statistic in the epidemic of hearing loss (more silent than quiet) or one of the millions who live with tinnitus we probably can't recall the last time we spent a day without construction, sirens, traffic, cell phones and the dissonant presto movement of modern life. Why is that important? Because too much noise is more than an irritant it causes high blood pressure and disrupted sleep. It creates aggravation and can trigger or heighten problems with short term memory. Too much noise creates stress.
55-85 decibels---that's the threshold beyond which hearing damage can occur. Surely that's not a sound level we reach very often you might think but the facts may surprise you. Do you commute? Highway traffic or multi-lane roadways generate 85 decibels. Construction zones in your neighborhood generate over 100 decibels. In fact, even hospitals and care facilities with their machines, hallway chatter, alerts, and pulsing call bells often run on an average of 65 decibels. Sound Consultant Julian Treasure writes, "We’re designing environments that make us crazy...It’s not just our quality of life that suffers. It’s our health, our social behavior and our productivity as well.” Here's a list of ratings for common noise encounters. How much of your day is spent above 55 decibels?
Quieter cities would improve public health and calm our communities. Quiet relaxes our muscles and calms anxiety. Quiet aids learning and concentration. A walk in a forest or a moment alone in a church can bring us back to the whole body relaxation of quiet comfort. The farther we drift from quiet in society the more we seek places and methods that help us regain that peace. Our pursuit, for example, spawned an entire life enrichment and relaxation industry in America. It's absorption into our culture is the background for Huffington Post's recent story, "Meditation: America's new pushup." The need for quiet brings calm to some yet rouses others to organize and act in the fight against noise that disturbs the city's peace.
As the public seeks ways to revisit quiet so too, increasingly, do planners, product engineers, and design visionaries who are lifting awareness about quiet and appropriate levels of sound. After years when restaurants, buildings, and product design traded quiet for trendy appearances and/or lower cost the tide seems to be turning. In London quieter products receive a Quiet Mark rating assuring the consumer of their sound safety much like a UL rating conveys electrical integrity. For more on the quiet mark and quiet products watch this interesting BBC video. Besides reducing daily stress quieter products often lower energy consumption. In fact, Taisei Corporation in Japan actually generates energy, saves carbon emissions, and controls environmental damage by quietly demolishing skyscrapers! Imagine that! Back here in America though quiet electric cars ran into public safety concerns as pedestrians, who rely on noise to determine when a car is approaching, prompted new legislation requiring manufacturers to engineer a "car sound" in electric vehicles.
Nearly 100 years ago the director of the American League for Noise Abatement predicted that the city of the future would be "noiseless and noiseproof." We're certainly not there yet and, if electric cars are an example, we may not want a city that quiet but technology and public need is pushing us closer than we've ever been before. London has already imagined that environment in it's Quiet City Project. When asked whether they noticed city noise 86% of London's public said "yes." When asked what noise they noticed they described a globally recognizable city symphony: traffic, construction, fans, sirens, airplanes, mobile phones, car stereos, beeping from everywhere, fire alarms, busses, garbage trucks, office machines, banging doors, car alarms, and air conditioning systems. London's Quiet City Project moves steadily toward its goal. What are we doing here in America?
Update 14 July '13 Author, acoustic ecologist, and filmmaker Gordon Hempton explains his global search for quiet and explains his comment, “Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything,” in this interview for The Sun magazine.
Update 27 Dec '13 This Atlantic article by Kaid Beanfield, a professor at George Washington University and co founder of the LEED rating system for neighborhood development, talks about the importance of quiet spaces. Beanfield writes, "I have a theory that, the busier and livelier a city is, the more it needs places of retreat, places where one can get away and be quiet and still."
Update 22 Feb 15: This short summary of recent research examining the effect of higher noise levels in parks and wildlife areas shows that increasing noise levels disrupt some species. "'The concern, states Dr Fristrup of the US National Park Service, "is that there is the potential for a shifting standard for what constitutes quiet.'"
Update January 2016 In this article from Mother Jones looks at science which indicates that "Even if you think you're immune to city noise, it may well be affecting your health." Our bodies react to noise whether our mind thinks that or not. Long term exposure non natural noise can increase hypertension, disrupt sleep patterns, impact children's learning ability, disturb cognitive performance and increase our vulnerability to cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, and dementia.
