Pedestrian lights noise pollution

johnos

I live near a busy road, and the most invasive noise nuisance is the blind-signal beeping from the pedestrian lights about 20 yards from my home.
In general, I have found that I am fairly sensitive to noise, but I think that I probably am not the only one, and environmental design should take the range of sensitivity into account.
I can get used to trucks and buses, but this beeping is extremely intrusive. Most other noise -- even boy racers booming techno music from their cars -- can be relegated to the unconscious. But I can never banish the beep, not because of its volume, but because it is deliberately designed to disrupt thinking and attract attention, by changing abruptly from a steady rhythm to a frantic one. It's not the decibels, it's the pattern. This infernal racket especially ruins quiet periods in evenings and weekends when otherwise there would be very little background, apart from natural sounds of birds, wind etc.
I realise that, in light of the recent debate over Dublin City turning off the sound, this is an unpopular cause, but in my opinion another way has to be found, at least in residential areas, to help blind or partially-sighted people at crossings, without condemning residents to a lifetime of being subjected to this artificial aural irritant.
More generally, I think that our quality of life is greatly affected by noise -- alarms, drunks, traffic -- and that it deserves more attention from green lobby.

dbnavan

i lived near similiar lights for a time, never looked into it too much as only effected me when windows where open, interesting to know what your local council would have to say about it, why not drop them an email.

Thomond Pk

Could you not ask them to lower the volume setting on this crossing?

I do not know how anyone could have proposed to do away with audio facilities at road crossings for the visually impaired, that type of thinking regarding 'creative accounting thought' should never reach a public audience.

What your situation may regard is poor local management of volume control as against a Citywide problem and eliminating the audio assistance on the basis of some noise impacts without adjusting individual crossings would be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

johnos

I spoke with the Council (Dun Laoghaire) and they were pretty reasonable about it. They turned down the volume from ridiculous to still-audible, and they turned the beep off at night.
I don't think that, in the current climate, they could do much more, although I have come across other, similar sets where there is no noise signal.
However, I a making a wider observation here. In my opinion, there must be a better technological solution to this problem, especially in residential areas, where freedom from road noise, and quiet generally, is an important factor in quality of life. And, contrary to the suggestion above, I certainly think that all options in this problem should reach a public audience. I thought the media response to the admittedy badly handled DC decision was hysterical and one-sided, with at least one radio news programme abandoning any semblance of objectivity and mounting a campaign against it, instead of providing a balance of views.
I am not a scientist, but I am sure that incipient noise, and in particular frantically-toned noise such as these traffic signals emit, has health implications, in terms of raised stress.

Capt'n Midnight

We should campaign against soundproofing in cars. Emergency service vehicles have had to get louder sirens in the past because of this. Also means pedistrians and cyclists haven't a hope of being heard in an average car if the radio is on. So it's really a safety issue. If you are driving and see an ambulance with sirens on see how long it takes for some motorists to notice , they don't seem to notice until all the cars around them are up on the path.

johnos

With respect, soundproofing in cars is a bit off-topic.