Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We moved from San Jose to a small town of 9,000. Picked the house for the price and the land, but didn't give a thought to being so close to the freeway. You do get used to it. The train is about 1/2 a mile, and that thing is horrible, especially early in the morning. Neighbors are farily quiet. I hate those leaf blowers which my neighbor loves, and his riding lawnmower at 7am.
I'm very sensitive to noise and wish we had chosen our location more carefully. Even a mooing cow disturbs me, when it's crying out of distress because they separated mother from baby.
I commented yesterday to the clerk at Walmart how much noise people put up with, mostly unaware of the constant racket. Those stupid little carts backing up, children crying, etc. Next time you're in there, pay attention to the noise level, you might be surprised.
I live in a small town, on a quiet street and the only traffic is from the people who live here. I can occasionally hear an emergency vehicle's siren from a couple of streets over. Today was a bit noisy because a neighbor is getting a driveway put in. And later in the week, it will be noisy again when another neighbor replaces a sidewalk.
My problem is not that I live in a noisy area - the noises are in my head. I hear cicadas, even when there aren't any. Tinnitus is a constant.
It's normally between 18 & 25db where we're at. Our normal winds or birds/squirrels might get it up to 30db. If one of the neighbors (1/4 mile away) are running saws or mowers or a big truck passes on the road (3/4 mile away) or a bush plane goes over, it might get up to 35db.
However, one of our neighbors constantly yells at their kids whenever they're outside. Surprisingly, this has jacked it over 40db... I guess voices aren't absorbed by trees and background noise as well as other types of noise. Even if they weren't measurably louder, I find their yelling much more noticeable and irritating than dogs barking, chainsaws and dozers. Whenever they're outside, we try to stay inside since the foot-thick walls of the cabin give additional soundproofing.
It is amazing how loud some individual sounds can be. I was in an area that the general ambient sound level was 30db, about 50 yards from a small pond with a slow river about 200 yards beyond that. Bullfrogs in the pond would register at 45 db, the tree frogs around here are even louder, but it's still nowhere near as irritating a sound as most man made noise.
If this thread were moved to a more general populace, I'm sure the responses would be different.
Why ask people that live in the country how quiet it is?
Because I don't give a damn how loud it is in the city, everyone knows it's loud and annoying there. I was looking for objective measurements of how quiet different rural areas are.
Some noises, even if loud, aren't particularly annoying because they're continuous... chainsaws, generators, etc.
Some noises, even if quiet, are more annoying because they're abrupt or variable... voices, gunshots, etc.
I think the "noticeability" of noises actually have a greater impact on perceived loudness/quietness than the true db level. And when you live some place where the ambient sound level is generally low and monotone, abrupt noises of any loudness seem to be extremely loud and obnoxious even if they aren't actually very high db.
We used to live in the city.
When the wind came from the West, it would bring the noise from the freeway which was a couple blocks away.
We hated it.
So we moved.
About a thousand miles.
Now, when the wind comes from the West, it brings the noise from the surf which is a couple of blocks away.
It's louder that the noise from the freeway.
We love it.
I love the summers when I can open all of my windows and let the resident whip-por-wills and frogs lul me to sleepl
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
