Avi Flaxavi
Jun 11, 2026, 1:37 AMCities aren’t loud, combustion engines are loud.
Replies
Jun 11, 2026, 1:53 AM@avi Tokyo is a revelation.
stephen ryner jr. 🦉nuthatch@infosec.exchangeJun 11, 2026, 2:44 AM@avi I have bad news for you. Electric cars are also loud. Bicycles, not so much. But Teslas remind you how much noise is just tires on the roadway once you get up to speed.
- Avi FlaxaviJun 11, 2026, 10:59 AM
@nuthatch I agree. But I’ve been spending time in Manhattan lately, and there the primary sources of noise are deisel engines in trucks and buses, and generators in food trucks and food carts.
If we could wave a magic wand and instantly convert all of them to all electric motors, Manhattan would be 80% quieter.
- stephen ryner jr. 🦉nuthatch@infosec.exchangeJun 11, 2026, 11:09 AM
@avi special case, traffic is also slow in Manhattan 😆
- Avi FlaxaviJun 11, 2026, 11:22 AM
@nuthatch true, true. Maybe it’s a stretch to generalize from Manhattan to “cities”
At the other end of the scale, I live in the city of White Plains, NY. Around 60K residents, around 250K workday population. Diesels are still a major source of noise but are rivaled by 2-stroke engines for landscaping or snow removal, and by modified exhausts on obnoxious flashy hooligan cars and motorcycles.
- stephen ryner jr. 🦉nuthatch@infosec.exchangeJun 11, 2026, 12:11 PM
@avi I’d like to visit Paris, they’ve really cleaned up their act. But credit also to NYC for making changes, like congestion pricing. It seems to be working? People are like “I’m gaming the system, I take the subway and walk two blocks to work instead of paying that stupid congestion tax.” Hmm maybe I should visit NYC, it’s been too long (I grew up on Long Island.)