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by karmelapple 1228 days ago
At the 10:15 mark in this video, different types of vehicles are measured for noise output.

It would be pretty amazing if we could get around on e-bikes a lot more than we could today. Quiet, easy to ride… but in places that are not hospitable to bike riders, less safe than a car, which is likely why they won’t be adopted en masse.

https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8

1 comments

Watching this video now. Impressions:

- In most of the city shots, you can clearly hear that road/tire noise and honking are by far the loudest noises. EVs won't change this.

- In the Delft segment, a train was the most significant source of noise so they removed it. Yes, public transit is incredibly loud, much louder than cars.

- The video specifically says that road/tire noise is louder than engine noises for most cars at certain speeds. EVs won't change this.

- Cars are not at all the loudest vehicles he measures, and heavy cars were louder than lighter ones. EVs are significantly heavier than equivalent ICE cars.

- He specifically says that EVs are probably worse noise offenders at higher speeds due to being heavy and having wider tires.

- He specifically measured passing Teslas and they were the exact same loudness as ICE cars.

Hence the arguments make my point for me: EVs are not going to improve city noise levels much if at all. I dislike noise too. But EVs are not the solution here (and if you've ever listened to most public transit, neither is that).