There's this guy on YouTube that travelled to india and one thing stood out to me was the non-stop honking of cars and bikes. Just endless forever. What a nightmare!
I wonder what that does to a population. How does anyone think??
I used to live next to a big intersection with a red light, and the cars accelerating away when it goes green was annoying. I now live at the end of a cul-de-sac with a cemetary behind me. So much more peaceful!
This it the most immediate and obvious change in any Chinese city now, they are practically silent. All electric cars means you can actually have a conversation with someone while walking through crowded downtown areas, and you never realize how much of a difference it makes until you experience it.
Of course, noise on sidewalks is important and annoying. But to a German who is used to good (sealed) German windows, French and Spanish cities, just to name some, are just a pain.
Be it in hotel rooms or regular homes, almost nowhere the windows are sealed. Just pressing gently on the window (more pressure on the sealing) reduces the moped noises by 30-50%.
I believe https://carto.bruitparif.fr/ represents 2022 levels, but my French is very rusty and I suspect that historical data review is more readily available to a speaker of it. Perhaps that site has lockdown data as a layer somewhere?
