a city of (automotive) sound

Dan Hill at City of Sound uses the Economist story on the "danger" of the silent Prius[1] as the starting point for a mind-bogglingly fantastic post on automobile noise in cities.

Cities should not be quiet, or only replete with so-called ‘natural’ sounds - whatever that means post-nature, and post-industrialisation - but the urban soundscape is something that could use a little more room for manouevre, dynamically. To be clear, I'm not averse to cars or car noise. Some car noises are hugely appealing. It’s just best experienced as a distinct note and timbre in a richer, more dynamic city symphony, as opposed to the pervasive ambient roar of thousands of combustion engines. This latter has a totalising suppressing effect on urban sound, akin to the scourge of overusing the compressor in contemporary music production. If everything is loud, nothing is.

Go read the whole thing -- it's as if his entire history as a blogger has been leading up to this one post. The illustrations are pitch-perfect, there are some (literally) fantastic ideas about creating new sounds in cities, and some wonderful touches like this...

In that respect, [car] sounds can be considered as something special too. We can more fully appreciate the throaty purr of a 1969 Ferrari Daytona or the brawny roar of a 3.5 litre 1978 Ford Capri or the lawnmower rattle of a 2CV or the saucy throb of an old DS, lifting skirts and all, just as we’ll always appreciate the sizzle and hiss of tyres on wet road.

[1] FWIW, as a Prius owner, the only pedestrians I've come close to hitting are the ones who happen to be wearing white earbuds while stepping out into the street without looking.

Comments

[Xris Ernest Hall]

I've observed my cats, and they seem to react to Priuses (Pria?) exactly the same as they do to other cars. I believe this is because while human beings are very attuned to sounds (vibrations in the air) cats have a sort of sixth sense for ground vibrations, and while a Prius may be quieter, it's still large and heavy enough to cause sufficient vibration in the grounds to alert a cat that something unsafe is approaching.

[Michael Sippey]

This is good to know. Because I rarely see cats wearing white earbuds.

[Larissa Gaston]

I'd heard about the silent Prius phenomenon but I hadn't experienced it for myself until today. One sort of brushed by me on it's way into a parking space - like a manta ray on a night dive - and I was none the wiser, it just snuck up behind me. Of course, I'm fine. And no earbuds were involved. Unless the driver was wearing them.:-)

[Michael Sippey]

Oooh, "like a manta ray on a night dive." All of a sudden I feel sleeker, even as the owner of what's possibly the geekiest car on the planet.

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmuJqEzL8_B7csZ2VJCo9xdMH6i0GzaZLY]

While I like his piece it is my observation that the major part of automotive noise is not engine noise, it is tire roll. I have a 2008 Honda Civic (not a hybrid) that makes virtually no noise when idling and little when accelerating. What you hear in the environment (as opposed to inside) are the tires being compressed against the pavement. This will not change until cars get a lot lighter.
Weight is the major noise factor in cars.

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmuJqEzL8_B7csZ2VJCo9xdMH6i0GzaZLY]

To bad bout using the Google ID-it doesn't identify me. Hi I'm Martin Edic...

[Michael Sippey]

Hey, Martin... We're working on getting that Google bug fixed...

[richardtrade]

I think the noise and the smells make it alive. It is all about memories. If we did have memories of noise we would not associate it.