Most of the things they named weren’t caused by cars.
Some of the non car things have to be louder because of cars. People yell louder when they have hearing damage from cars. Sirens need to be louder.
Cars are far louder than most of the things on the list, only gunshots, airplanes and construction can even remotely exceed the level of noise pollution produced by a busy roadway.
A lot of the things they name aren’t inherently city noises, either, though. I don’t live near any concert venues or airports, so I don’t hear noise from either of those sources. You could live in the middle of nowhere, but if you live above the local bar, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s loud on Friday and Saturday nights. Dogs and birds aren’t exactly uniquely urban phenomena, and the sound of peoples’ shoes on the sidewalk being a major source of noise just strikes me as absurd.
Yeah I don’t know where they’re coming from if they’re not used to birds. I just got an impromptu concert by the wren who lives in my azalea and it was lovely.
90% of the things they named weren’t cars but in practice if you actually compare cities with tons of cars vs ones with few you’ll find that removing cars removes 90% of the noise.
If a city was too quiet I’d go from being annoyed at all the noise to being paranoid that I’ll be the one being too loud.
And that’s why people do less yelling when there aren’t cars around. That’s why removing cars makes the other stuff quieter.
