Do you live close to a major highway (hear the noise?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:let paranoia reign. Do you think people who live in cities have lower life expectancy? How about people who work outside such as gas station attendants? The only concern with living near a busy road or highway is the noise. It makes people feel good for not living near highways, etc. then they need to keep telling themselves about that. And....no we don't living near a busy road but I would not hesitate to purchase if other things like quality of home, schools, yard, neighborhood were acceptable.

It's objectively true that air pollution has an impact on health, so I'm not sure there's reason to argue that point. Now...should air pollution dictate where you choose to live? For many of us, it's a minimal risk that's worth taking.

[Anonymous]

I live in a neighborhood adjacent to 234 in PWC and yes, we hear the noise. It's really noticeable when we are outside and in the front rooms of our house, which affects one of my kids whose room is on the front side. Not so much in the back of the house, so the other bedrooms are not as affected. I don't notice it much unless it's a particularly loud, big truck rumbling by or there's an accident. But, 234 isn't the beltway or 66 so if we can hear what we do here, I can't imagine living that close to a major highway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:let paranoia reign. Do you think people who live in cities have lower life expectancy? How about people who work outside such as gas station attendants? The only concern with living near a busy road or highway is the noise. It makes people feel good for not living near highways, etc. then they need to keep telling themselves about that. And....no we don't living near a busy road but I would not hesitate to purchase if other things like quality of home, schools, yard, neighborhood were acceptable.

If you're not informed about a subject, you'd be better off remaining quiet. You might learn something.

Linky: http://www.scpcs.ucla.edu/news/Freeway.pdf

One snippet of many from the link: Compelling evidence suggests that people living, working and going to school near roads with heavy traffic may
have an increased risk of adverse health effects associated with exposure to mobile source pollution. These “traffic
density” studies have observed development and increased aggravation of asthma (Montnémery), decreased lung
function in children (Brunekreef), and low birth weight and premature births for mothers living near major
roadways (Ritz).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a neighborhood adjacent to 234 in PWC and yes, we hear the noise. It's really noticeable when we are outside and in the front rooms of our house, which affects one of my kids whose room is on the front side. Not so much in the back of the house, so the other bedrooms are not as affected. I don't notice it much unless it's a particularly loud, big truck rumbling by or there's an accident. But, 234 isn't the beltway or 66 so if we can hear what we do here, I can't imagine living that close to a major highway.

Remember that parts of 66 and 267 inside the beltway do not allow trucks so it isn't very loud.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP that lives close to 395 now. Our previous apartment was half a block off of Connecticut in Kalorama and it was way more a) noise and b) pollution from car fumes. I was really worried about being so close to the highway when we moved but honestly, it's so much quieter and less smelly from all the exhaust where we're living now.

[Anonymous]

I live about 7 houses from Rt. 50 and we hear it during the day if we are outside. We don't hear it from inside the house at all and it is a lot like white noise when we're out. I'm not thrilled about it being right there, but it is what it is. We aren't moving.

[Anonymous]

We are about a mile from I66 and I can hear road noise late at night. We don't hear a thing during the day.

I do think there should be a decibel level limit on cars and motorcycles. Someone else posted earlier that that is all they can hear. I consider loud vehicles as noise pollution and think it's wrong that motorheads have to subject everyone around them to their loud motors.

[Anonymous]

I lived in NYC with fire engines, cans honking, garbage trucks banging around early in the morning. You eventually tune it out. When I moved here it was too quiet.

[Anonymous]

Live about a mile from I95 and you can always hear it outside and occasionally inside. My home is brick and well built with a large yard, fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Op, you need a visual in the backyard as a focal point. Like a dramatic fountain. It needs to produce noise, energy. It isn't going to drowned out the noise, nowhere near completely, but it draws attention to this prominent object.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in NYC with fire engines, cans honking, garbage trucks banging around early in the morning. You eventually tune it out. When I moved here it was too quiet.

I've lived in DC and NYC and I'd argue that highway noise is very different from daily city noise. I don't mind living in a city. I would never want to live in a house right by 66 or 50.

[Anonymous]

I find it odd that a / some PPs believe there is only one person on here who dislikes living by major roads and worries about air pollution.

People make their own decisions about trade offs and risk - and also what bothers them. I don't eat organic and drink soda so am no crazy health fanatic. But I would not have purchased any house at all right along the beltway or one of the other major highways. Part is air pollution worries (one thing for me to drink soda; another for my kids
Developing lungs to have dirty air to breathe on a constant basis).

The biggest piece though was that the road noise stresses me out. I could not imagine tuning it out while outside.

We lived in an apartment that backed to the beltway pre kids. It was a low hmm inside but on the balcony was crazy loud. Fine to rent somewhere like that when you can move but would never have bought the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live about four streets away from 495 and at times it is silent- weird. Tree cover helps muffle noise. The a-holes with loud motorcycles and cars do standout at times. No air quality issues though.

We're two streets away from 270 and this is our experience as well. Our neighborhood has a ton of old trees and it makes a huge difference. We barely hear anything except for the whiny motorcycles or unless there's a big wreck or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live about four streets away from 495 and at times it is silent- weird. Tree cover helps muffle noise. The a-holes with loud motorcycles and cars do standout at times. No air quality issues though.

We're two streets away from 270 and this is our experience as well. Our neighborhood has a ton of old trees and it makes a huge difference. We barely hear anything except for the whiny motorcycles or unless there's a big wreck or something.

I do think it really depends on the specific highway and placement of the house. I just looked at a house literally RIGHT next to the 66 barrier. I was surprised at how minimal the noise was. I've visited other homes that sit farther away from the highway, but are louder for whatever reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it odd that a / some PPs believe there is only one person on here who dislikes living by major roads and worries about air pollution.

People make their own decisions about trade offs and risk - and also what bothers them. I don't eat organic and drink soda so am no crazy health fanatic. But I would not have purchased any house at all right along the beltway or one of the other major highways. Part is air pollution worries (one thing for me to drink soda; another for my kids
Developing lungs to have dirty air to breathe on a constant basis).

The biggest piece though was that the road noise stresses me out. I could not imagine tuning it out while outside.

We lived in an apartment that backed to the beltway pre kids. It was a low hmm inside but on the balcony was crazy loud. Fine to rent somewhere like that when you can move but would never have bought the place.

Do you reside in a cut through neighborhhod? That is the only way any noise would stress me out - because any noise would be intermitent.