Car Harms: The Physical and Mental Health Effects of Noise and the Lessening of Social Values

Dr. Arline Bronzaft was working on this op-ed as part of our “Car Harms” series earlier this year when she took ill. She died on Oct. 29. We are publishing it posthumously as a tribute to her decades of service to New York City and her lifetime of work.

As a native New Yorker and environmental psychologist, I have long been aware of the central adage of urban life: Cities aren’t noisy, cars are.

That subtle hum of the FDR Drive under an East Side window may not even draw your attention, but it is certainly damaging it minute by minute. As I uncovered that 50 years ago with research on the effects of elevated train noise on children’s learning in an elementary school in Upper Manhattan, the constant, grinding, numbing noise of car and truck traffic is literally sickening us.

Of course, science has long known that loud sounds — pleasurable ones like a Pete Townshend solo or intrusive ones like a bomb — can bring about hearing loss. But even sounds that are not that loud can have dire consequences for the listener, especially if the intrusive sounds occur over a period of time, as more and more studies show. As noise persists over time, the body reacts physiologically, and the risk of damage to the circulatory, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal systems rises.

And that is a particularly pernicious car harm — worse if the source of the noise is a driver with little concern for the rest of us because then the hearing loss is coupled with a loss of our civic fabric (but we’ll get to them later).

The advent of the auto brought about the first New York City noise code in the 1930s. And when the city updated the code 17 years ago, it did so in recognition of noise as a health hazard and in response to the growing number of noise complaints to its 311 citizen service hotline (there were 331,587 complaints in fiscal year 2005 and 354,378 in the next fiscal year, an increase of 7 percent in just one year).  

Yet to this day, many residents of New York City, when queried, would respond that too little is being done to enforce the code. Passing laws is one thing; enforcing them is another.     

New York City has made attempts to lessen traffic noise by setting rules through traffic signals, setting speed limits, and regulating parking, but more can and must be done.

First, the city must recognize that it is alone; in 1981, then-President Ronald Reagan shut down the Office of Noise Abatement and Control, and it has never been restored (unlikely during the Trump regime). 

So let’s update our Noise Code.

They should also be asked to explore how some cities in Europe, e.g. Leipzig and Ghent, have reduced vehicle traffic and, in doing so, immeasurably improved their residents’ quality of life. 

In New York, the effort to reduce car noise now includes two major improvements: a pilot program to use “noise cameras” to identify motor vehicles that are exceeding sound rules, and, of course, congestion pricing, which has reduced traffic and its attendant noise.

But it’s not enough; we are still having our health undermined by selfish drivers in their loud vehicles — some of which have been “souped up” to increase their damage. People who impose their noises on others, especially in light of the fact that so much has been written about noise pollution lately, are making a statement: “We don’t care about you. We will do what pleases us.” Imposing your loud sounds on others demonstrates a lack of respect for other people. It also demonstrates a lack of civility.  

The city needs to end this crime. It is anything but victimless.