Sound Pollution

Noise is a kind of pollution that can cause discomfort, anxiety, stress, degradation of quality of life, in addition to medical problems, other mental issues, in addition to possibly reduction in life span.

Cyclists, skaters, and pedestrians(including public transit users) seem to be more exposed to urban noise pollution, sepecially where there is alot of car, truck, and bus traffic.

Bicycling, skating, running, (including electric bikes with hub motors) are virtually silent in comparison to auto traffic.

So in addition to cycling, skating, and ped traffic being a zero air pollution emission form of transportation, they produce virtually zero noise pollution.

There are project in various parts of the world to measure and map noise levels throughout the urban environment, such as London www.londonnonoise.com

There is also a Noise activism website www.nonoise.org which has a wealth of information on how to protect yourself from noise pollution and tools for noise activism.

One of the simplest things a citizen can do, in noise activism, is to merely ask elected officials of your city, in this case Santa Monica, "Where is our noise map?"

If you want to see an example of a sound map, take a look at www.londonnonoise.com

Is it possible that one of the causes of "Road Rage" is the elevated levels of sound, including the sound of all the engines running and reving, the sound of the several 2+ tons of metal rolling and thumping on the road, screeching to start and stop, honking, elevated noise from cars, trucks, and motorcycles with defectiv mechanical parts.

So perhaps we need to ask out elected officials in Santa Monica "Where is Santa Monica's noise map?"

If you have any more ideas on how to get the city of Santa Monica to begin looking more closely and assisting in mitigating noise, such as for a starter, creating a noise map, which would be a valuable tool, including to value concious property owners who may see that as the noise levels drop, the value of their property increases, let me know.

Bart Kosko, a professor at USC, just release his newest book titled "NOISE" which addresses many of the things I spoke and much more. He also addresses noise pollution activism around the world.

And if you have any other links to good resources in the area of noise pollution activism, please post them or email them to me.

Thanks