“Mumbai: Slow down the Sound” by Ethan D.
Noise pollution is a very underrated environmental problem and the impact of it is very apparent. The effects of noise pollution can include hypertension (elevated blood levels), hearing loss, sleep disturbance, loss of marine life (mainly cetaceans that use noises to communicate), and compounding the onset of dementia. The suggested decibel (dB) of sounds throughout the day should be around 40 dB and throughout the night around 35 dB to prevent against noise pollution (“Noise pollution”). These suggested numbers are easily exceeded in Mumbai, India on a daily basis, so it is time to take action.
A normal traffic jam in Mumbai
According to the TomTom traffic Index, Mumbai is the world’s fourth most congested city as of 2019. In addition the index estimated that drivers in this city had lost 8 days and 17 hours of time due to being stuck in traffic (Sullivan). Other largely congested areas include that of Bengaluru, Manila, Bogota, Moscow, New York and Los Angeles. This is not just a problem in India and other Asian countries, but it is spread out all across the globe.
We may ask why such high decibel numbers are occurring in these areas, and the reason is due to a bad habit in very populated areas, honking. The joint commissioner of police in Mumbai has said, “unnecessary honking is a menace that everyone recognizes but does little to curb.” Now, the police are fighting back with their own clever experiment in hopes of teaching people a lesson of being quiet. Recently Mumbai police have began a campaign, labeled “Pushing Signal”, to fight against the dangerous noise pollution occuring in their area. The main impact this campaign will have will be the enforcement and use of “special decibel meters connected to traffic signals across the city.” These meters will be able to register the decibel level in the intersection they are placed, and when the noise exceeds a dangerous 85 dB, the traffic light will reset its timer to prevent it from turning green. This will “punish” honkers who are impatient and the timer will continue to reset until the noise level gets below 85 dB. The purpose of these detectors are not to make the drivers mad, but rather teach them that staying as quiet as possible will help benefit them. As of now, these noise detectors have only been used at important intersections for about 15 minutes a day, but will soon be placed in 10 new locations for the next month, and hopefully all across the city before long (Sullivan). The results of these short trials have been a success and have taught drivers that honking, literally, gets them nowhere.
Everyone is easily annoyed by loud amounts of honking and noise. Now that there is a solution to help solve this problem, this can be used all across the world.
Do you think these noise detectors are a good way to combat noise pollution?
What are some other possible ways to help lower noise?
What do you think are potential drawbacks that could occur from the use of these detectors?
Have you ever been in an area with a large amount of noise pollution? Where? What was it like?
Works Cited
Lim, Shawn. “Mumbai Traffic Police Campaign Highlights Noise Pollution on Roads.” The Drum, The Drum, 3 Feb. 2020, www.thedrum.com/news/2020/02/03/mumbai-traffic-police-campaign-highlights-noise-pollution-roads.
“Noise Pollution: Environmental Pollution Centers.” Noise Pollution | Environmental Pollution Centers, www.environmentalpollutioncenters.org/noise-pollution/.
Sullivan, Rory, and Esha Mitra. “Mumbai Tests Traffic Lights That Stay Red If You Honk Your Horn.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 Feb. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/india/mumbai-traffic-lights-tests-scli-intl/index.html.
TWC India Edit Team. “Bengaluru World's Most Congested City, Mumbai Fourth: TomTom Traffic Index.” The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel, 31 Jan. 2020, weather.com/en-IN/india/news/news/2020-01-31-bengaluru-world-most-congested-mumbai-fourth-tomtom-traffic-index.
I do think these noise detectors are a good way to combat noise pollution, it would help people to actually hear themselves think.. There could be certain travel times so people can sleep at night, or better ways of helping clear up the congestion. The drawbacks that could occur from the use of the detectors are people would stop driving and would cause more congested streets. I feel like really any decent size city has noise pollution, it was difficult to communicate with one another, but we were finally able to.
ReplyDeleteI believe noise detectors can be helpful in preventing needless noise pollution, and in the long run it could even help prevent deaths caused by elevated blood levels. It could even help people rest at night, and hopefully make the streets a safer place. There is no way streets that congested with traffic are safe during the day or night, hopefully the noise detectors can change that.
ReplyDeleteThese noise detectors are valuable to the problem of noise pollution. I agree that this is a very underrated environmental problem that needs to be dealt with. I am glad these detectors have seen results in very congested areas. I do see where there could be problems in some countries where honking is a part of the driving culture. For example, in Delhi, drivers do not usually have turn signals or rear-view mirrors, so to let other drivers know they are passing them, they just honk to signal their passing. A lot of cultural change would have to happen as this isn't seen as rude or off-putting, it is just a part of driving in these areas.
ReplyDeleteI never realized that noise pollution was such a big problem in areas like Mumbai. I also think that the noise detectors are a good way to keep the noise levels down. I can just imagine some Indian man in his car getting angry, honking, alerting the detector and making everyone angry at him
ReplyDeleteI believe that noise and light pollution are a lot more dangerous to our environment then most people think it is. I think that these detectors will be problematic at first but soon become a huge benefit to areas that use them. The only problem I see with them is that vehicles and people in a concentrated area can easily create more than 85 decibels of sound.
ReplyDeleteI have never thought about noise pollution of a very populated place. I usually think about the physical things like climate change and things of that nature. I do believe that noise detectors are a good way to combat al the noise. Places like Mumbai have many polluting issues and usually people do not think about the sound. There could also be different regulations that could stop the. Lose to make it a little quieter. I do see why people would have a problem with that. However, I truly believe that noise detectors could be a good start to minimizing noise pollution.
ReplyDelete