Will electric cars help solve noise pollution?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Noise pollution from vehicles in the public space has a huge impact on human health. But as the world switches to quieter electric-powered means of transport there’s a debate about whether we will actually see any noticeable improvement to our quality of life.

Discovering more than just engineering solutions to the problem, CrowdScience visits one of the world’s loudest cities, Mumbai in India. It is a place where noise has become a way of life. But is that all about to change?

Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Richard Walker Editor: Richard Collings

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.4	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. You're listening to Crowd Science from the BBC World Service and this week I'm in
0:40.7	Mumbai one of the noisiest cities in the world I'm Alex
0:46.8	Lathbridge and this week I'm searching for an answer to a question which
0:51.1	comes from the city I just flew in from. My name's Matt, I'm from London and I like
0:59.0	to go and walks on the country and holiday in this country and you can't really escape from that constant noise
1:05.6	It's an incessant hum in the background just road noise all the time and obviously a good night's sleep can be spoiled by road noise and we know that noise
1:14.5	pollution in general is very bad for us and then I thought being interested in
1:18.9	EVs too will once we gradually shift over to electric cars and the internal combustion engine
1:25.6	finally dies will things be better? Will the gradual shift to electric cars actually make our lives better by reducing the noise pollution
1:36.9	and when it help people all over the world who live in really noisy places, live a bit more peacefully.
1:44.0	Matt's not wrong.
1:45.0	Noise pollution is bad for us.
1:47.0	The World Health Organization or WHO defines noise pollution as any sound above 65 decibels. shows
1:55.0	it says noise pollution as any sound above 65 decibels.
2:22.0	It says noise becomes harmful when it goes over 75 decibels and it's officially painful when it's above 120 decibels. Yes, a rock concert near an airport. The WHO estimates in Western Europe alone at least 1 million healthy human life years are lost
2:29.0	annually from traffic-related noise.
	...

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