# What's it like living on a busy road? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031 "2015-05-01T19:13:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/41 "2017-03-26T13:24:05Z")
If you can avoid it, avoid it. It is tolerable and does have the perk of being well plowed in snow storms but overall it sucks to have the noise level. It also means making a left turn out of my driveway can take a few minutes sometimes. I’m going on 16 years here now and will not miss the road noise when I move to a quieter road. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/42 "2017-03-26T18:29:27Z")
I used to live on the corner of a road junction. I found the general flow of cars could be quite soothing; but not the grinding, subsonic rumble whenever buses paused and idled at the traffic lights. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/43 "2017-03-27T19:57:48Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > There used to be the occasional Fast ‘n’ Furious wannabe treating the hill as a slalom course but one of those idiots pulling a hit 'n 'run with an oncoming car seems to have put a stop to that. I guess I’m missing the memos from the Local Speeders Club. Otherwise I’m not sure how one person’s accident stopped an entire locale from speeding through a particular area. My 2 cents about living on a busy street: I think you will get acclimated to the noise, but it will still subconsciously bother you. I remember reading a car magazine article about aftermarket car exhaust noise. To sum up the article, you can tune out the noise out from your conscious thought process, but the constant hum of the exhaust was draining and caused anxiety. The test indicated that the louder the aftermarket exhaust (or in the homeowner’s case - road noise in general), the more stress the subject experienced. Googled to try to find the article, but no luck. ---
**Author:** ![SUZ\_MAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@SUZ\_MAC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SUZ_MAC)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/44 "2017-03-27T20:24:15Z")
Traffic noise was the reason I moved 8 years ago. I got used to it, but never in a soothing way as some have mentioned. I’m much happier now that I live in a nice, quiet neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/45 "2017-03-27T20:58:10Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > My 2 cents about living on a busy street: I think you will get acclimated to the noise, but it will still subconsciously bother you. > I remember reading a car magazine article about aftermarket car exhaust noise. To sum up the article, you can tune out the noise out from your conscious thought process, but the constant hum of the exhaust was draining and caused anxiety. The test indicated that the louder the aftermarket exhaust (or in the homeowner’s case - road noise in general), the more stress the subject experienced. > > Googled to try to find the article, but no luck. There have been similar studies about living in the vicinity of airport flight noise, including statistics of stress-related medical conditions & deaths of people living under airport flight paths. But those studies too, are hard to find. There is the whole airline industry, as well as airport management, who don’t want them talked about. ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/46 "2017-03-27T21:13:02Z")
As others have pointed out, it depends on your sensitivity to noise. I live in an old house on a busy U.S. highway that is used by a lot of tourists in the summer. The traffic noise does not bother me in the slightest, and has never kept me awake. If you’re not used to it, you may go through an adjustment period, but I suspect you’ll eventually drown it all out as I do. If you’re not already in the habit (and you should be for [other reasons](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18263497&postcount=45)), learn to always reverse your car into the driveway, unless you have one that’s easy to turn around in. Reversing onto a heavily traffic road is a pain in the butt. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/47 "2017-03-28T18:15:44Z")
Not great. You get used to constant traffic noise, but loud trucks will still disturb you. There is also soot from all the exhaust pipes, and trash mostly consisting of beer cans and fast food wrappers/bags. ---
**Author:** ![Toledo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Toledo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toledo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/48 "2017-03-30T01:54:28Z")
When we were first married, we rented (for 3yrs) a house on the corner of a feeder road and a fairly main artery. There was a light there, and a bus stop literally in our front yard. We had a good juicy crash every month or so, had the police on speed dial (this was long before 911). It took about a year to get used to it. Or so we thought, we bought a house on a quiet street, and realized we really had never got used to the noise. Strangely, The current house is about 1/2 mile from a main Norfolk Southern line which sees 100 trains per day, about the same 1/2 mile from Interstate 475, and under the approach path to the airport. Yet the house is well insulated and none of this is noticeable unless I am outside. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/49 "2017-03-30T06:08:11Z")
Tolerance of noise is a weird thing. I live off a main two lane street. My bedroom window is near a busy alley with lots of traffic. I’m under the flight path of an army reserve and training post. I’m two blocks away from a fire house. My apartment is right next to the pool. I have no problems with any of this noise. Let someone eat potato chips with his mouth open? I can hardly focus, the sound is so disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Zivile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@Zivile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zivile)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/50 "2017-05-02T20:52:17Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > Tolerance of noise is a weird thing. I live off a main two lane street. My bedroom window is near a busy alley with lots of traffic. I’m under the flight path of an army reserve and training post. I’m two blocks away from a fire house. My apartment is right next to the pool. I have no problems with any of this noise. > > Let someone eat potato chips with his mouth open? I can hardly focus, the sound is so disturbing. Same here. I guess it mostly depends on where you grew up and spent most of your life. I am a student and rent a modest apartment next to a very busy and noisy street + my room has really large poor quality windows that let all the sound go through. However, I didn’t even realize there was something wrong there, until one day my neighbour asked me how I manage to cope with ‘the problem’. It was strange to find out that all my neighbours are going crazy from the traffic noise while I didn’t even notice. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/51 "2017-05-02T21:46:31Z")
“How often does the train go by?” “So often you won’t even notice” ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/52 "2017-05-02T22:17:16Z")
Everybody’s talking about noise but I’d be more concerned about the long term effects of pollution. Eg: [Living near a busy road may raise risk of dementia, major study into pollution finds](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/01/04/living-near-busy-road-may-raise-risk-dementia-major-study-pollution/) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/53 "2017-05-04T17:52:43Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > For the people across the street from them, since the road curved by them, it was more the fact that at least five people I can think of died in their front yard in a variety of accidents. So yeah. That. Many years ago, when I was a child, we lived just inside Baltimore city limits, on a 25-mph residential street that was capped at either end by major arteries entering the city at 70 mph. Stop signs controlled the intersections. This was before seat belts. As you might imagine, during the three years we lived there, the scream of brakes followed by the boom and crunch of impacting metal regularly interrupted our sleep. There were at least four fatalities that I was aware of (and our parents tried to shield us from all of them). Twice a parent came into my bedroom and took the blanket off my bed to cover a mangled body. Caveat emptor. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/54 "2017-05-05T20:36:42Z")
Lived on a busy two-lane road in a semi-rural area; no sidewalks, speeders were common. Never again. :mad: Lost two dogs to hit-n-run right in front of my eyes; dogs were supervised and doing what they were supposed to be doing. One car specfically swerved to hit my dog. Dangerous as hell to walk anywhere along the road, and walking or bike riding was what under-age kids had. Learned to listen hard, and spend a lot of time making shortcuts through the woods. Winter was especially bad, with ice and snow. Was deliberately forced off the road whilst on my bike twice. Not much better once I had wheels - Two wrecks on that road, one to ice, and one to drunken speeder. Some years back, a Senator lost two kids to a single-car wreck on that road. Couldn’t pay me to live on a road like that again. **Sailboat** , you’d know about the area: Rural surroundings of Havre de Grace. ---
**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031/55 "2017-05-06T16:43:23Z")
I live on a very busy street, not only for cars and trucks but people. You get used to it, at least I did and when I had a cat, he always was in the window looking out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-living-on-a-busy-road/719031.md?page=2)