Quiet UK

Tag: Active travel

  • What is noise pollution and what can you do about it?

    What is noise pollution and what can you do about it?

    Stop for a minute. Turn off the TV. Take off your headphones. What do you hear? If you hear nothing but natural sounds — birds, water, bees buzzing, then you’re either very lucky or your brain is doing its utmost not to hear the everyday noise of the human-made world.

    And our brains are very good at this. Walk into a room with a smelly dog and you’ll probably wrinkle your nose at first, but give it a while and nose blindness will kick in. The same happens with sounds and noise. But even if we can’t ‘hear’ them they are still having an effect on our bodies and our wellbeing. A WHO study showed that one million healthy years of life are lost every year due to traffic noise in western Europe alone. One million healthy years of life!

    And guess who is more likely to live in areas with higher levels of noise pollution? Yep, people with lower socioeconomic status and other disadvantaged groups.

    What is noise pollution?

    We hear a lot about air pollution, with good reason. Interestingly many of the things that cause air pollution also cause noise pollution — cars, planes, factories — they do a real number on the environment around them.

    Excessive noise seriously harms human health and interferes with people’s daily activities at school, at work, at home and during leisure time. It can disturb sleep, cause cardiovascular and psychophysiological effects, reduce performance and provoke annoyance responses and changes in social behaviour. World Health Organization (WHO)

    Last week the UK and Europe literally burned in a record-breaking heatwave. As per the advice I kept my windows and curtains shut during the day to keep out the worst of the heat. In the late evening, when it finally cooled a bit, I opened the windows and was greeted by the sound of lawnmowers. Who the f*ck is mowing their lawn when it was still 30+ degrees. Why the f*ck would you mow what is essentially now straw due to the climate crisis-induced heatwave. This action was unnecessary and showed a distinct lack of consideration for their neighbours. I shut the windows and swore and sweated a lot.

    Noise pollution is harming the environment. Noise pollution is harming human health. It can lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. It creates stress in the body leading to cardiovascular disease. It reduces children’s ability to learn. It affects sleep patterns — a big one for me, and trust me the world doesn’t need me getting less sleep.

    Noise pollution needs to be a political issue. It needs to be a priority in every political party manifesto. Environmental groups need to talk about it more. Reducing or changing the things that make noise will have a positive impact on the climate crisis.

    But what can I do about it?

    First of all, listen. Listen for the good sounds, the birds singing, the arrival of bees in spring. Not only are these sounds good for your wellbeing, they also need someone listening out for them so that if they are impacted by human behaviour someone notices and does something about it.

    Other practical things you can do include:

    • Stop flying — that’s it. We all know we need to stop doing that shit.
    • Ditch the car if you are able — walk, cycle, wheel or use (quiet) public transport instead. And no, electric cars aren’t silent. The engines might not roar like a diesel or petrol engine, but the noise they create when travelling on the road is just the same.
    • Campaign for low-traffic neighbourhoods and lower speed limits in your area. Remember 20 is plenty where people live.
    • Dig up your lawn and replace it with herbs and pollinator-friendly plants = no more lawn mower or strimmer. I did this and the increase in bees, birds and butterflies has been amazing. Plus we saved £150 on replacing our broken lawnmower.*
    • Talk to your local council or government — make them understand that this is an important issue. Ask them to consider noise pollution whenever they approve a new housing estate or road. Perhaps instead of a new road, they could improve the walking and cycling infrastructure?

    These suggestions link closely to noises that I feel impact my life. You might have other noises that you feel are more urgent to rid your environment of. One person I follow on Twitter would love to see the end of leaf blowers. Why not buy a rake and broom instead — that way you also get a workout.

    It’s time to get noisy about noise.

    *Lawns are carbon sinks. If you dig up your lawn replace it with other plants and trees. Don’t pave over it or replace with other forms of hard landscaping.

  • Simple solutions for a quieter life

    Simple solutions for a quieter life

    Back in the day when I used to commute to work the simple task of getting the train used to raise my stress levels to breaking point. Five days a week I’d arrive at the station five minutes before my train, then wait an extra ten minutes because the train was always delayed. I’d then jostle with my fellow commuters trying to claim a spare foot of space as my own. The journey itself was 12 minutes, except on days when we had to stop because of branches, cows or swans on the track (yes, all three of those we’re given as reasons for delays). And by the time I reached work, I was a jittery mess of anxiety and hatred towards all humanity.

    Yes, the delays were frustrating, paying for a seat and not being able to get one was a tad irritating, but the thing that got to me most was the noise. From the minute the carriage doors clunked shut there was constant noise. The train manager making unintelligible announcements over the PA. The squeals, bangs and squeaks of under-invested in rolling stock. The new phenomena of people playing music or watching movies without headphones — it was bad enough having loud, tinny music leach from headphones, but this new antisocial habit is enough to make me shove their devices into some very dark holes. And who can forget the very important man (yes, always a man) who doesn’t understand how a phone works and shouts so loudly into the receiver that the whole carriage knows just how important it is that Steve gets the contract to Maggie by close of play.

    In the end, I started driving to work — yes, I know this is not the sustainable option, but honestly, I was so far past the end of my tether that I was liable to headbutt the next very important man I came across. My commute time went from 12 minutes to 45 minutes, but those 45 minutes were quiet. Before this, I was ready to quit my job but this little change allowed me to hang on until I was ready to go freelance.

    In an increasingly loud world, opportunities for quiet seem to be diminishing. From the minute we wake up to the beep beep beep of our alarms to the time we are lulled to sleep by the near-constant rumble of traffic and aeroplanes noise is always there. And it’s killing us.

    So how can you find the quiet space you need?

    Explore your local community

    Even in the busiest of city, you can find quiet nooks and crannies. Sometimes they are obvious places like large, tree-filled parks but there are also plenty of hidden spaces waiting to be discovered. One of my favourite places is churches. I’m not religious but the enforced quiet of a religious building can be a blessing. But you need to avoid the fancy ones, the ones that tourist flock to.

    For example, Liverpool has two cathedrals. The first, and oldest is the appropriately named Liverpool Cathedral. An imposing building full of stained glass, stone carvings and tourists. The other, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, is a modern building with a derogatory nickname due to its, shall we say, distinctive architecture. And because of this fewer people visit making it a much calmer space. This building is a wonderful space to escape the rumble of traffic and bustle of the nearby shopping centre. (If you’re not religious please be aware of the religious practices in the building and act appropriately).

    Turn everything off

    Nice and simple this one. Take off your headphones. Turn off the TV, phone and tablet. If you are constantly listening to your devices you won’t know when there is quiet around you.

    Yes, they block out unwanted noise, but you are just substituting one noise for another. Turn them off and listen. Let your ears lead you towards the quiet they crave.

    Change your schedule

    A few years ago I worked in an open-plan office. Well, that was its own special kind of hell. No Phil, making hour-long calls on speakerphone is not sodding appropriate. Other than building your own fort out of reams of printer paper and broken A4 binders there’s not a lot you can do to change the physical space. But what if you changed when you are in the space?

    My old company allowed flexi-time — as long as we were in the building for the core hours we could start as early as 7am and finish as late as 8pm. I was an early bird and would arrive outside the office at 6.59am and leave just as the clock struck 3pm. This worked because the rest of my team were night owls who would rock up sometime between 9.30 and 10.00. Leaving me with up to three delightful hours of quiet every day.

    Depending on your company this might take a bit of negotiating, but it’s worth a try — even half an hour of quiet a day could make a difference.

    Avoid traffic

    Venice and Amsterdam are major European tourist sites, filled with people, cafes and restaurants. But they are both missing one thing — cars. Thanks to their unique landscape and, in the case of Amsterdam, their attitude towards cars, they are filled with the hubbub of people, but they lack the roar of motorised transport.

    Some towns and cities are finding ways to reduce our reliance on cars but others are still stuck in a car is King mindset. This gives you another reason to explore your neighbourhood or perhaps try a different walking route to work.

    If I walk the most direct route from my house into town I end up walking alongside a major road — filled with all the accompanying air and noise pollution. But if I take a diagonal route, it adds five minutes, but it avoids the main road and takes me along a tree-lined path that skirts a brook with all its accompanying bird song and babbling. For the sake of five minutes, I know which my lungs and ears prefer.

    I hope these simple ideas will help you to find some quiet space. I’d love to hear if you have any other ideas for finding a bit of hush in our increasingly noisy world.