How to deal with sound nuisance from cars and motorcycles

rolf

This is a geek forum, but people have been posting other stuff here.
Since I am not sure where to start, I figured I'd do the same.

My room has a door to a balcony, and directly in that axis, there is a small roundabout where 3 roads intersect.

It seems that every once in a while, cars driven by great people who are very intelligent and have a lot of interesting things to do in their life, power drift their car on that roundabout, at late hours of the night, creating amounts of stress, annoyance, anger, unrest for no useful purpose except maybe them living out some kind of racing champion delusion.

I would also get annoyed (with the whole neighborhood, no doubt) by motorbikes, with their exhaust removed (or fallen off or whatever), also driving up and down that road (surely for very important reasons) at late hours of the night.

Once I saw one of these on the street, they were ridden by a couple of teenagers. I don't hear them anymore now. Now that winter has come and school has started, I guess their mommy makes them sleep before 9 PM. They also don't like the cold wind to dry their delicate hands.

So anyway, now that I have painted a picture of the situation, I am wondering if anyone knows what to do about this

I fantasize about dropping rocks on them and other creative "solutions", however fantasizing does not seem to change anything to the situation.

Maybe I can take a video and try to capture the license plate, then something can be done.
Does anyone have experience or stories to tell or ideas on this topic?

Draguen

hey, easiest answer would be investing in double glazing windows and a good pair of ear plugs. i'm sure that by doing that, you will greatly reduce the annoyance.

now one step above would be to get noise cancelling earphones that can be used for sleeping such as these :

https://www.nosleeplessnights.com/headphones-for-sleeping/

however be prepared to pay a lot of cash and not be fully satisfied, if a friend has a good pair of active noise cancelling headphones, i'd advise to try them out for a night, just to make sure that they block well the sound that bothers you.

if this is still not enough, research "white noise" and either put them through speaker or through earplugs.

Finqlly if all of the above is still not enough, you can go to the dark side, buy or rent a good night cam with infrared, get the drifting cars number and send it to the traffic management unit on facebook, those are the guy that can fine asshole drivers :

https://www.facebook.com/tmclebanon/

yalla good luck

ironman

rolf wrote
I fantasize about dropping rocks on them and other creative "solutions"

I do that as well....

chosen2k

Man I understand what you're saying and I have it worst than you. I live next to a major intersection and the quickest honk I hear on average is around 45 seconds. People have serious anger and superiority issues thinking the world evolves around them. I've seen how people drive in other countries and how they respect each other. Once while traveling, I saw a guy closing an intersection and the fight between drivers was like watching a silent movie, it was surreal. During a vacation in Dubai, I didn't hear a horn once.

Thing is, the people just do not care nor have the self control or even driving ethics. (Let's face it, I'm one of them; however i do not use the horn ;) )

I've already installed double glazing, didn't work as expected because when you have 20 cars blasting their horns for 30 seconds at the same time after seeing the light go green no amount of soundproofing will work. So if you find a solution, I'm all in.

samer

Instead of reducing the noise, mask it. Distracting noises are not loud on an absolute scale, they are loud relative to the average sound level. So how do you raise the sound level? Blast some white noise.

I tried many white noise apps but the sound didn't feel right to me. Now I sleep with a fan on, regardless of the season, and it works wonders to mask street noise.

I've also made a project about this a few years ago that took the idea a bit further: https://samer.cc/projects/hover/

I hope this helps–

nas93

samer wroteInstead of reducing the noise, mask it. Distracting noises are not loud on an absolute scale, they are loud relative to the average sound level. So how do you raise the sound level? Blast some white noise.

I tried many white noise apps but the sound didn't feel right to me. Now I sleep with a fan on, regardless of the season, and it works wonders to mask street noise.

I've also made a project about this a few years ago that took the idea a bit further: https://samer.cc/projects/hover/

I hope this helps–

sleeping with a fan on greatly reduced the noise, installing double glazing windows helps as well

rolf

Thanks for the advice, but I don't want to go out of my way, investing in double glazing and expensive headphones, putting things in my ear, creating noise when I want silence. It would not be an easy solution as it costs money, and not the right way to go down as it enables antisocial behavior.

I dont see what is dark about reporting a nuisance. They must be filmed because they only come a few minutes, so there is no point in calling 999.

beezer

The fan is the quickest solution, you report their license plate, so what? Think they'll go to their house and arrest them? Take away their license? More will come.

A few years ago a wedding hall opened up 500m away from my place, they built walls which are lower than the speakers so during the summer I hear music until 2am and fireworks anywhere between 11-1am. No one cares about anyone but themselves.

My kids sleep at 8pm, I had to get fans and blast them so they could sleep.

rolf

Did you try reporting them?
I know that police are not really proactive in this country, however with a little pushing sometimes things get done.
I have to say, the few times that I tried doing something I was greeted with negative attitude. But things changed eventually and I partly contributed. So if you complain, don't expect to be thanked, however it can have an effect especially if several persons complain.

nefe_lpmk

I live on the Highway , loud sound all day / all night.

My room has a small balcony, so I installed closable curtain glass on the balcony + double glazing on main window.
When both are closed --> it will reduce noise level by 95%.

My opinion is is investing in doing one of these at a time then the other ( start with well installed double glazing). you spend 40% of your time in your room so investing money in your welfare should be priority.

Good luck

rolf

nefe_lpmk wrote
My opinion is is investing in doing one of these at a time then the other ( start with well installed double glazing). you spend 40% of your time in your room so investing money in your welfare should be priority.

Definitely, especially if you live next to a highway.
However if you live in a quiet street, and every once in a while a "za3ran" bothers everyone in the middle of the night, I think that's different.

I just want to say, thank you to you and everyone else for the tips.

Guitaret

This problem is difficult, complicated and all over the globe. Noise pollution is a real dangerous problem and as severe as cancer some may argue.
Reading your feedback helped me feel less desperate about my situation:
3 years ago a tribe of refugees moved in to the apartment beneath mine and it has been difficult ever since especially to someone sensitive to random loud noises like I. Hoard of savage kids running around day and night and so double glazing will not help since the noise is inside the building. The saddest part about the situation is the fact that I paid much of my money renovating the whole place and so I find it difficult to leave it all behind and move in to a new place.
Living in this country feels like filling water in a basket: no matter how much you work hard and plan your life right something will screw it up sooner or later.

Mitigation:
Fan noise is the best but sickly during winter no matter where you point it.
Foam earplugs during sleep but you will feel congested waking up. Those ear plugs are cheap and very effective but it takes a while to know how to use them: You need to master how to shape it right to fill up your ear canal perfectly.
Listening to music.
Leaving TV on.
Having a quiet backup place to escape to. I sleep at my parent's few times a week.
Hoping and praying efficient cheap sleeping capsules get produced :)

Good luck.

chosen2k

Your post reminded me of this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IRB0sxw-YU

Guitaret

chosen2k wroteYour post reminded me of this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IRB0sxw-YU

Thank you so much, this video made my day. The dark sarcasm in this piece is hilarious and bone chilling. Cheers.

samer

Fan noise is the best but sickly during winter no matter where you point it.

Assuming you have a heater on, wouldn't the fan more effectively circulate the heat in your room and therefore make the temperature more uniform across space?

Guitaret

samer wrote
Fan noise is the best but sickly during winter no matter where you point it.
Assuming you have a heater on, wouldn't the fan more effectively circulate the heat in your room and therefore make the temperature more uniform across space?

I am not imformed of the thermodynamics behind this but it never felt that way in our cold concrete buildings. Perhaps in a well heated insulated place this can take place.
Anyway thanks for pointing that out.

Jerome

Guitaret wrote
samer wrote
Fan noise is the best but sickly during winter no matter where you point it.
Assuming you have a heater on, wouldn't the fan more effectively circulate the heat in your room and therefore make the temperature more uniform across space?
I am not imformed of the thermodynamics behind this but it never felt that way in our cold concrete buildings. Perhaps in a well heated insulated place this can take place.
Anyway thanks for pointing that out.

You can think of it like this: Moving air is a great thermal conductor. Non moving air is a great insulator, that is how double glazed windows work.

xazbrat

Guitaret wrote
samer wrote
Fan noise is the best but sickly during winter no matter where you point it.
Assuming you have a heater on, wouldn't the fan more effectively circulate the heat in your room and therefore make the temperature more uniform across space?
I am not imformed of the thermodynamics behind this but it never felt that way in our cold concrete buildings. Perhaps in a well heated insulated place this can take place.
Anyway thanks for pointing that out.

I think it is the second law p. Keep in mind that hot air rises and cold air sinks---all you want to do is get the cold air which pools near where you sit to the warmer air which is hovering near the ceiling being useless to the occupants in the room. Just point the ceiling fan slightly upwards and you will be amazed on how much the room gets warmer. If otoh you have a ceiling fan, reverse the flow ie, have the fan go counterclockwise, and you get a similar effect.

Guitaret

I am sure the generic theory here is not enough for your claims as you need to try harder with the parameters at hand.
So for a room of 4m2 x 4m2 x 3m2 using an electric heater of 1000W (if the generator subscription allows it) in a cold night temperature of 10°C and humidity of 75%, you are telling me that I won't wake up feeling cold and sick. Please guys do the setup and let me know how it feels or you can re-quote what I said earlier:

Guitaret wrote I am not informed of the thermodynamics behind this ... Perhaps in a well heated insulated place this can take place.

Anyway to get back to the main issue at hand, the fan thingy is not a good solution for noise pollution when it is cold.

samer

I already have that setup and it works pretty well for me with an outside temperature of 0ºC and 80% humidity. My heater is constantly on the lowest setting and the fan does a great job at blocking street noise. I have to mention that my room is very well insulated so your mileage may vary.

Just point the ceiling fan slightly upwards and you will be amazed on how much the room gets warmer.

Good point. I'll try that tonight.