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MagLev Trains Annoyingly Loud
crem_d_genes writes "You might hear that whistle blowing from that train coming 'round the bend, but tapes of the sounds produced by magnetically levitated and normal trains produced a result that was something of a surprise: Most people rated maglev trains as more disturbing than standard intercity trains. It had been previously known that the two types were about equally loud, but this study analyzed people's reactions to them. Since the effects on the environment will be part of the feasibilty studies for future development, acoustical engineers will have some new challenges. Some participants in the study said the sound made them 'feel insecure, some found it startling, and disliked the occasional shrill sound the maglevs produced.' The researcher postulated that unfamiliarity with the noise might be part of the problem."
Does anyone know of links to audio samples of a maglev? I've never heard one and some rudimentary googling didn't turn them up.
The quality of the noise source is as important as its intensity (i.e. decibels). Some noise patterns are just plain annoying. For instance, in noise studies, helicopters are considered more annoying and have lower acceptable decibel thresholds; the old Hueys are a prime example.
Videos of maglev trains, with sound. My apologies in advance to the host.
/.'ing commence!
Let the
You can hear them better because there's less vehicular traffic during the night. When a city is on the move during the day, all the cars effectively produce a blanket of white noise that reduces your perception of all the other sounds.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
The regular trains actually stop at night, you're just hearing the ghost trains, which are noticeably louder than their corporeal counterparts.
The sound of a regular train (been a while since I've heard one) is rythmic, higher pitch clicking. I would guess that the maglev might be more lower frequency. Also, one might wonder if there's a sound beyond the range of human awareness that might be contributing to the feeling that the maglevs are "louder" or more annoying.
I dunno ... you tend to feel louder high pitched sounds in your ears, whereas the lower ones you might feel more in your body.
The author of this post would like to point out that unlike other posts, this one was more stream of thought, and less composed than his previous ones. In other words, he's talking out of his ass.
I talk about stuff.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Where once upon a time new technologies were just introduced, we now run the risk of getting them bludgeoned to death by special-interest groups and environmental impact statements. There is no reason why in time maglev sounds should not become a familiar part of the soundscape, barely noticed if at all, and a realisation that people might be uncomfortable with something just because it is new may help us determine whether something really is damaging or if it's just a baseless case of NIMBY (as opposed to "it really is damaging, so get it the fuck away from me") when people oppose something new.
(aplogies if this is incoherent... it's been three hours since my last coffee)
I wonder if it's perhaps as simple as our built-in responses to shrill sounds.
Primates tend to make more shrill prolonged sounds when in distress. We are likely hard wired to go on alert when we hear distressed sounds from another primate. That would explain uneasy feelings and rating the sound as more intrusive and objectionable than a rumble and clicking sound which would be fairly meaningless to the lower parts of the brain.
It's a two fold problem that will likely call for psychologists and neurologists to determine what is so distressing and annoying about the sound, and then accoustic engineers to figure out how to alter the sound so that it no longer has that characteristic.
Nothing more than a hypothesis here, but quite testable.
The frequency content of a sound has a lot to do with how comforting or annoying a sound is. Incredible ammounts of money have been spent on this in the auto industry alone. Studies are done on the sounds of a car door closing to find the sound that makes people feel the most secure when the door has closed. What they've found is that the sounds of car doors closing with more energy in the low end of the frequency spectrum makes people feel more secure in the sound of a door closing.
Now lets apply this to trains. Normal freight trains generally produce a lot of low frequency sounds. Generally around 300Hz and below. Now the maglev trains could be a lot quieter, but if they make higher frequency sounds, even at lower dB levels, the sound will seem a lot more annoying than freight trains.