[greggyb]

Past ~20mph-30mph, tire noise matches engine noise.

In the US, at least, this means that the vast majority of streets will not see much benefit from EV transition, at least with regard to road noise. The quality of the noise will change, but not the total volume.

As an anecdotal reference point on road noise, I live within a couple miles of an interstate, and the noise I tend to hear does not have discernible engine noise. This is, of course, from vehicles moving at a very different speed than any within a neighborhood.

[Doxin]

Fun fact: there's such a thing as low noise asphalt. Obviously it doesn't remove road noise altogether, but it does help a lot.

[avidiax]

This is true in a scientific, not practical sense, in any American city.

Engine noise always dominates, because 1% of cars are simply purposefully obnoxiously loud, and you need to be powerful and well connected to get enforcement of existing laws about vehicle noise in your neighborhood.

[Cthulhu_]

Yeah I don't mind the traffic noise outside of our house - it's mostly road surface noise which is dampened to white noise, and most petrol engines aren't that loud at those speeds. But it's the occasional sports car or moped that is the most annoying. Those are getting replaced by electric models too, but I wish they did something about the noise decades ago.

[greggyb]

We're well into subjective areas.

For me, while I find the 1% of purposefully obnoxious engines to be annoying, the thing that grates on my nerves is anything more constant. So for me, road noise dominates in what gets under my skin, not engine noise.

I cannot speak for you or anyone else, except to say that you have no right to speak for anyone else, either, who has not granted such right to you.

[taeric]

Right, I see I didn't say it in my first post, but yeah. Loud things are loud. Surface streets, though, should see a lot of improvement.