[Inthenameofmine]

At highway speeds aerodynamic drag creates more noise than the motor itself (externally). So an electric car makes little difference there. Reducing speed reduces noise non-linearly. Therefore electric cars make a big difference for noise pollution in slower city streets. Inter-city travel just needs to be reduced, slowed down, and moved to well built electric rail.

[morsch]

True for aerodynamic noise, but tire noise starts to dominate at speeds as low as 30 km/h[1]. Obviously it's going to vary depending on the car and the road cover. It certainly seems intuitively true from the quality of the sound at the side of a busy city street.

EVs do nothing for that and aren't a panacea regarding roadway noise. I've been snuck upon by an EV in a parking lot a couple of times, but never on the side of the street. It would work if we limit the speed within cities to something like 20 km/h, which is something that, yes, we should be doing immediately.

[1] https://www.drivingtests.co.nz/resources/are-electric-cars-q... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_warning_sound... https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reifen-Fahrbahn-Ger%C3%A4usch