But the most significant change in modern science is not just about the amount of noise, but how we experience it. Noise is no longer understood solely as a problem that affects hearing, it is also recognised as a systemic environmental pollutant. Transport noise is now one of the leading environmental cause of illness in Europe, second only to air pollution.
The theory is that it keeps them safe because drivers hear them before seeing them.
That’s not how sound works. Sound works by inverse square, light doesn’t. Visibility is way more important. If they wanted to be more noticed they would wear high his clothing.
Hi vis clothing only matters when they actually see you, which they dont, because they’re looking at their phones. Noise otoh, may make them actually fucking look.
Sincerely, a motorcyclist.
Maybe we should reduce the number of cars.
I dunno, I love riding motorcycles, but I’ve never been able to hear a motorcycle on the road while I’m in a car. Unless they’ve just passed me, then I hear them. But by that time, noticing them is not really important, because they’re already past me. The noise from a motorcycle is from it’s exhaust, the exit of the vehicle. So it makes sense that it’s noisier behind them. If you wanted to be heard before you’re seen, then you’d have an air horn mounted to the front constantly blowing. And that would get you killed by any number of the previously sane people that you run into.
Makes more sense than their argument