Noise Annoys, Angers and Upsets New Yorkers
New York, N.Y. Shortly after Mayor Bloomberg signed the Revised Noise Code, the Council on the Environment of New York City and Baruch College's eTownPanel.com released the results of the second of a series of online surveys about the noise problem in New York City and the nation. The results of the earlier survey were released in November, 2004. As before, the survey focused on general perceptions of neighborhood noise, specific sources of noise in communities, complaints about noise, and the behavioral and emotional consequences of neighborhood noise.
New Yorkers say they're most often bothered by neighbors' activity or voices, car alarms, and boom cars or car stereos, followed by police, fire, or ambulance sirens and highway or street traffic. In contrast, respondents nationwide are more often bothered by barking dogs, but they too report neighbors' activity or voices, car stereos or boom cars, and highway or street traffic as top noise problems.
Compared to nationwide respondents, New Yorkers report much higher levels of neighborhood noise and also suffer more behavioral and emotional consequences such as annoyance, upset, tiredness, helplessness and anger.
The survey, part of Baruch College's eTownPanel.com project, gathered the views of an online panel of 134 New Yorkers and a comparison group 1618 respondents living in other cities and towns in the US during the months of July and August, 2005.Respondents were recruited using the Internet and other sources and are not a random sample. However, results were weighted by gender, race, and age to better reflect the demographic profile of New York City and the nation.
Dr. Arline L. Bronzaft of the Council on the Environment and Dr. Gregg Van Ryzin of Baruch College's School of Public Affairs helped plan and analyze the survey.
"The Revised Noise Code is viewed as an improvement over the existing Code, which was forward-thinking when it was passed over thirty years ago, and it is expected to be more effective in dealing with New York City's growing noise problem," explains Dr. Bronzaft. "However, passage of the Code alone will not produce the desired impact of lessening the City's din of it is not supplemented with educational materials to inform people about the hazards of noise, the ways to protect themselves against noise, and the activities individuals should undertake to protect other people's rights to quiet. Evaluation of the Revised Noise Code should be conducted during the years ahead to learn whether the Code's sections are indeed lowering the decibel level in our City.
Dr. Gregg Van Ryzin explains: "This survey provides a unique perspective on what specific noises bother people most often, and also which noises are most strongly associated with behavioral and emotional consequences. We look forward to doing this survey each year and to tracking the noise problem in New York City, from the citizens’ perspective, on an ongoing basis.”
The complete report is available as of today on the websites of The Council on the Environment of New York City, www.cenyc.org, and at www.etownpanel.com
The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC), founded in 1970, is a privately funded citizens organization in the Office of the Mayor. CENYC promotes environmental awareness and solutions to environmental problems. CENYC conducts three programs --Environmental Education, Greenmarket and Open Space Greening-- and reaches out to the public with information on noise pollution and abatement, alternatives to hazardous household products, and other issues. For more information, visit www.cenyc.org
eTownPanel is a university-based, nonprofit project that aims to expand the potential of the Internet as a tool for measuring the quality of life in communities across the U.S. and for providing citizen-driven feedback on the performance of local governments. The project is affiliated with the Baruch College School of Public Affairs and is supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. For more information, visit www.etownpanel.com