Some streets in Dublin are recording up to 20 hours of noise a day from traffic and are as loud as motorways.
Residents in Phibsborough, who have been counting the cars that pass through, say poor planning is putting their health at risk.
Long-term exposure to air and noise pollution can cause chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as lung cancer.
Anne, who lives along the Phibsborough Road and runs the local bike shop, says she’s been recording around 20 hours of noise a day from traffic. She says it can get as loud as 80 decibels;
"It would be a dual carriage-way basically, that type of a level. Because the noise is constant it actually impacts people's health."
Around 450 vehicles pass through the area every hour according to the sensors, dropping to 150 an hour during the lockdown.
Colin Boyle, who lives on Nutgrove Avenue in Rathfarnham, says they have 11,000 cars, trucks and buses driving past their door every day;
"So we don't have any windows open in the front if we can at all, so we'll open them in the morning very quickly but we'll get them closed. So it just means that the front of the house is off limits really with any windows open."
We measured noise levels on our street. A thread on what we found…
Tl;dr Driving through streets where people live does measurable harm. So avoid when possible. (1/11) pic.twitter.com/HeHyYfmLjr— Nutgrove Avenue Safe Mobility (@AvenueNutgrove) October 13, 2021
He says reducing speeds by 10km/hr could help cut noise by 40 per cent.
Martin Fitzpatrick from Dublin City Council’s Air Quality Monitoring and Noise Control Unit says long term exposure to air and noise pollution can cause chronic conditions;
"People will always associate noise with annoyance, with loss of sleep but there's been a growing body of evidence that links it now to cardiovascular health."
Real-time air quality and noise levels can be monitored on dublincityairandnoise.ie
