[cuddlyogre]

It's not just urban areas. It is a scourge that plagues literally every corner of the world. There is nowhere in the city, the suburbs, small towns, or the middle of nowhere where you aren't subject to industrial levels of noise pollution generated by motor vehicles that have been intentionally and illegally modified to make as much noise as possible.

It used to just be motorcycles and sports cars. But it's now the most basic pickup trucks, family sedans, SUVs, and anything else that explodes fuel to move.

The total and complete lack of enforcement of existing noise pollution laws is the number one cause of the spread of this.

[TrueGeek]

I disagree that this exists in "every corner of the world".

> The total and complete lack of enforcement of existing noise pollution laws

This is the problem, 100%. I moved from Atlanta to a medium sized Dutch town and my noise pollution problems went away.

[sndean]

I had this problem – near 24/7 noise – but moved 20 miles west to a suburb that has speed bumps and significantly less through traffic. The average dBs outside went from ~65 to ~45. Maybe in the US, at least, the issue is that the quiet urban/suburban places are much more expensive than the loud places and so are relatively inaccessible?

Though, now that I think about it, the depths of New York City will be both very expensive and very loud.

[Gigachad]

The first moves are being made on this. A couple of cities have just started trialing noise detection systems for loud vehicles. I’d like to see this rolled out more, especially in cities where a single asshole on a motorbike can disturb tens of thousands of people in minutes.