How common is street noise? (Chicago, Lincoln: apartments, rental, landlord)

[oak317]

I live on a quiet part of Lincoln Ave. It's a busy street, but it's not the worst; for example, living on Halsted, North Ave, or Armitage is probably worse.

I wanted to know, how common is it to hear street noise outside your bedroom window? Do a lot of people who live in the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, or South Loop deal with this?

[s, harry truman]

Yes. Street noise is unavoidable, just hope that it is infrequent. For instance, if people are constantly walking to trains/bars/shopping and its a major bus route. Otherwise, even on my quiet side street the occasional garbage truck/delivery vehicle and family/friends walking by make it into my apartment.

[ChicagoMeO]

i've lived in front of the bus stop. whenever the bus would stop and use their air brakes, you know, make that sound of whoosh of air.. it was pretty loud. also the motorcyles at night in summer would blast down the street and that was pretty loud. sound travels upward so even living on a high floor doens't prevent it, you would be best living on a side street as that muffles it.

also living next to certain streets on Lake Shore Drive can give a severe wind tunnel effect, thats probably very hard to deal with in winter.

if you live on a street like Lill or Drummond, it will be more background, but try living on Clark and you'll get lots of traffic noise. just stand on the corner where your apartment would like to be and thats what you'll probably hear in your apartment above.

[ChicagoMeO]

i know the landlord or person showing you the apartment tells you "when you close the windows you cant hear a peep".. thats nice, but in summer, its nice to open windows. i was seeing an apartment on a busy street that i liked and i was hoping to hear the train, well the train was coming and i wanted to leave the window open and the lady suddenly slammed the window down so i could hear how quiet it was. yeah but i raised it right back up coz i wanted to see what the train noise sounded like. it was kinda rude the way she flipped the window closed to fast. i dont need to hear how quiet it is, i needed to hear how loud the train sound was. sheesh!

so make sure you open windows to see the sound. you may want to open them in summer.

on a busy street, you'll probably hear a constant whoosh of air, though you can get used to it, but when you have the windows open, you always have to turn your tv up because the air background noise drowns it out somewhate.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by oak317

I live on a quiet part of Lincoln Ave. It's a busy street, but it's not the worst; for example, living on Halsted, North Ave, or Armitage is probably worse.

I wanted to know, how common is it to hear street noise outside your bedroom window? Do a lot of people who live in the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, or South Loop deal with this?

Street noise is easily avoidable. If you are living in a low rise, especially below the tree line and further than about 150 feet from a busy street, you won't hear much of anything. If you're in a high rise, then you'll hear stuff when your windows or open (or when there's a loud siren going by). If your windows are closed, you won't hear anything in most buildings.

This notion of street noise being unavoidable is complete BS. Most of Chicago you won't hear street noise. Here's an experiment for you: Pick a really busy weekend night around State and Division and then walk north a block or two on State Street. You won't hear anything even though Division is right there and loud. I do that with visitors sometimes and they're always amazed.

[oak317]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Street noise is easily avoidable. If you are living in a low rise, especially below the tree line and further than about 150 feet from a busy street, you won't hear much of anything. If you're in a high rise, then you'll hear stuff when your windows or open (or when there's a loud siren going by). If your windows are closed, you won't hear anything in most buildings.

This notion of street noise being unavoidable is complete BS. Most of Chicago you won't hear street noise. Here's an experiment for you: Pick a really busy weekend night around State and Division and then walk north a block or two on State Street. You won't hear anything even though Division is right there and loud. I do that with visitors sometimes and they're always amazed.

But isn't State Street a bit noisy? My impression of Gold Coast, like Manhattan, is that there are always cars and cabs passing by, on pretty much any street (except for streets that dead end).

I'm referring to the 'whooshing air' noise that you hear from your window as cabs and cars go by (which happens constantly on Lincoln Ave).

I imagine that on State St, a couple blocks north of Division, you can hear this 'whooshing air' noise, from State St itself - especially if you're in a low-rise rental or you're below the 9th or 10th floor.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by oak317

But isn't State Street a bit noisy? My impression of Gold Coast, like Manhattan, is that there are always car and cabs passing by, on pretty much any street (except for streets that dead end).

I'm referring to the 'whooshing air' noise that you hear from your window as cabs and cars go by (which happens constantly on Lincoln Ave).

I imagine that on State St, a couple blocks north of Division, you can hear this 'whooshing air' noise, especially when you're in a low-rise rental or you're below the 9th or 10th floor.

You must not be familiar with State north of Division at all. It is almost nothing like what it's like south of Division. The street is highly residential and quiet. The drop off in noise is sudden and it's quiet there. Furthermore, cabs rarely take State between Division and North because it's slower moving (with speed bumps) and usually out of their way. It's lined with parked cars and the street is narrow like what you'd find in Lincoln Park. If going north to Lincoln Park, Lakeview, etc cabs almost always take a left on Division and then take Clark or La Salle to go north/south between Division and North, not State Street, because it is faster 98.5% of the time. Or they take LSD. Or if coming south, they will take Clark or LaSalle, and then Division. I used to go out with someone who live near Clark & Fullerton and I used to take cabs back and forth all the time. VERY, VERY rarely did the cab ever take State Street.

I've lived in the GC for over 5.5 years now and have friends in that area. Trust me - it's not loud there unless maybe you're in one of the scattered high rises in that area. Then I guess you might be able to hear the Division Street bars. Otherwise, no. I've been there a lot - trust me. It's quiet.

I also live just north of Chicago Ave on State and even the side streets up there like Chestnut, Walton, Oak, etc are quiet. Chestnut especially as it is like what I described for state. Narrower roads, 100% residential. If you have enough experience with Chicago, you'll know that even 100-150 feet below the tree line next to a busy street you can't hear anything. The trees and buildings act as a sound barrier naturally.

[ChicagoMeO]

You hear the air whooshing whenever theres traffic that goes fast, like Lake Shore Drive and Wacker Drive. That is because cars go by there like a highway.

You'll hear buses and other traffic noise on Clark or Michigan Ave.

On side streets like 1300 N State, you will hear it pretty quiet.

[jdiddy]

If you live on a busier street, make sure the bedrooms don't face the street and you'll be fine.

[Chicago60614]

my bedrooms always faced the back, so it was very quiet, but I've had some loud fronts of apartments. I was at 2800 Sheffield once with the brown and red lines right across the street and the hospital up on the corner. Between trains, ambulances and being close to the ohare flight path there was noise nonstop, but we very quickly just got use to it and never registered any of it. My mom was over once when we had the windows open and was staring at me wide eyed as ambulances and trains went by at the same time, I just looked over confused and said "what?".

That said, most housing is on side streets, and those can be MUCH more quiet than you would think at first glance. Go to the intersection of a few random side streets and you can normally hear a pin drop. Even if you just wander down Buckingham or Roscoe right off Halsted on the north side it's suddenly dead quiet, and you're right between boystown and wrigleyville on either side.