Do you really get used to road noise?

[Noodles17]

Hi,

My parents are moving to be closer to family and after a shaky start, think they may have found a house that works for them. Nice, well equipped area, close (but not too close 😉) to me, decent size house and garden, so doesn't feel like a big downsize, which is something they were worried about. Plus it's under budget by quite a bit, which is a huge, unexpected bonus! The only real sticking point is the road noise. The village is just off a very busy main road. Not so close you'd worry about pollution, but close enough to hear a constant whoosh, only in the garden, but a garden is very important to them, as is general peace and quiet and they do sit in their garden a lot.

I think because it ticks so many other boxes, they're wondering if this is something they'd get used to and perhaps not really notice in time - almost like white noise.

If you do live or have lived somewhere near a noisy road, did you get used to it or do you regret it?

TIA

A continuous hum of moving traffic is pretty easy to get used to. What's harder is stop/ start, vibration, acceleration and bellends with beancan exhausts farting and banging past.

I loathed the consuming silence of lockdown. Plus trapped with DH working from home and an autistic child who hates radio, it was hard to cover up the invasive silence with a gentle hum of background noise just leaving me with my tinnitus (alas headphones don't work; they're like a bat-signal for every sod in the house to need to emerge and talk at me). When the roads went quiet at the Queen's Jubilee and funeral it took me back to that awful dead quiet of lockdown again.

When we went on holiday and had to have the windows open to a double width road on a hill near a roundabout, the first couple of nights were rough particularly as it was boy racer time, but by mid-week the hum was more steady and less intrusive although lorries accelerating up a hill still had a lot of resonance.

I think it depends on whether it’s a noise that irritates you personally and if so I don’t think you will get used to it. We live in the middle of a small town and don’t notice the traffic noise unless it’s a loud car or bike.

Id be thinking more about turning in and out in the traffic and how stressful that would be.

I am a fairly light sleeper and live in the grounds of a hospital. Whilst I am used to the traffic noise, sounds of the lift going up and down and zebra crossing 'peeps', a drunken yob was whistling for a couple of hours after midnight (and other drunks would copy as they went past) that did annoy me! It is the 'sometimes' noises. I am usually awake before the dawn chorus (na na na birds!!) though the magpies are extremely loud, we also have a bird of prey family nesting on the top of the hospital and I can also hear geese flying over, helicopters along the road and also landing on hospital, drunken yobs etc. But it is the 'not expected' noise that would keep me awake.

It is the same living near a train station. When I used to housesit in Sidcup, I could hear the trains. Reminded me of my mum's spin dryer noise!

I have also stayed with a friend in Scotland. Absolutely no sound, not even an owl! I could not sleep!

I live on a busy A Road and it doesn’t bother me, it’s a route to Mcr for hgv as well. I don’t notice it
I do have a cat and keep it indoors as I am concerned it would get run over.

I moved to a busy main road into our city 3 years ago.
Vehicles drive past 24 hours a day including numerous police with sirens
It took me about a year to become accustomed to the noise and it now rarely worries me. I love the house and neighbourhood and I think that makes all the difference. I moved from a silent rural hamlet and hated the quiet. The constant sound of life here makes me feel very safe, I don't sleep well and it's actually comforting to know in the wee small hours that I'm not alone

Our house has a busy road on one side and a railway line on another. Neither of them bother us in the house at all, but I would be a little bit wary if your parents like to spend a lot of time in the garden - we don't use our front garden at all, even though it's bigger than the back one, and that's mainly because the noise is annoying even with a solid line of trees along the boundary.

I think it all depends on what you are used to really. I live on a busy main road now and in the daytime I rarely notice the noise unless a house shaking lorry goes through the village. However at nighttime, even after 10 years I just can’t get used to it and hate it (even though not much goes past in the night). Drives my husband mad as I can’t have the windows open because of it. But I grew up near a train tracks and a major train station and find that sound homely and I miss it 🤣

Lived right next to the end of r.a.f runway! Stopped hearing nimrods taking off.

Yet I'm inexplicably irritated if I can hear a clock ticking.

My friend lives rurally but on an A road. Beautiful house, large garden and loads of space. He cannot cope with the road noise (motorcycles in particular). Middling busy - more so at commuting times but the sound of acceleration etc really does carry and I notice it when we visit whether in the garden or opening windows.
it’s been enough of a bug bear for him that it’s caused issues in his relationship. And I totally get it. It would drive me nuts too. So my advice would be to avoid. Unless they are good with noise don’t underestimate the invasive nature of road noise, which can carry quite far. If they love peace and quiet they should continue their search

I got used to busy road noise in a couple of weeks. I live on an A road that is en route from Aberdeen to the port of Peterhead. I notice it very occasionally, if there is a particularly loud motorbike or a piece of industrial machinery being transported. The cars and lorries don’t exist for me now.

I used to live in a flat that was literally yards from a church bell tower in Germany, it rang every 15 minutes (except between midnight and 6am) and it was shockingly loud. It drove me mad for a couple of weeks, after which I didn’t notice it. I lived there for ten years in the end!

The sounds of the neighbours in the next door semi I grew up in - I never got used to that. In my forties I chose to live deep in the country (by a busy road) so I’d never again have to hear someone I don’t live with coughing, arguing, drilling, and playing Janis Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’ very, very badly on the piano at 7 oclock every morning for 17 years. Its bliss.

I live on an extremely long residential road in London and just where our house is, the road has these 6ft6in wide barriers which causes cars to slow down a lot and ultimately causes a lot of traffic and build up during peak hours. It is rubbish! Some cars play their music very loud, others toot their horn, sometimes big lorries reverse and make a safety beeping sound when they do. I'm a born and bred Londoner and even for me the traffic noise is too much!

Me too. A road, lorries and cars all day. Don’t notice it.

I keep my three cats indoors. They’re safe and happy and one of them just trurned 17!

The road is actually the (very sad) reason we’re here. The previous owners of this house had a 19 year old son who was killed on the road just outside while fixing the paddock fence just a few months before they sold it to us.

well with more and more electric vehicles the noise should lessen in time

This.

Road noise made me miserable and depressed. Stopped me sleeping. After a year, I gave up and moved.

Oddly, children screaming, dogs barking etc I don't even notice.

We bought a house that was maybe 500 yards from the train tracks.
It was the end house on a very long cul de sac.
And after four or five days, the trains that came by sporadically didn’t make any noise at all that we noticed.

You do not notice it, I can attest to that.

I live on a busy coastal road, goes a bit quiet between 3-6 for traffic, it is loud the rest of the time, but the waves hitting the seawall are REALLY noisy if it is a bad night. Thuds and bangs like you would not believe, then the bloody seagulls. None of it bothers me, all known and comforting sounds. Keep my window open. Used to work in London and the almost constant sirens near Euston used to get on my nerves a bit, but not too much. The only thing that really bothers me with noise is "unexpected" noise - usually people shouting, have slept in some really quiet places where there is NO noise, and on balance, I prefer the noisier places. No noise is eerie when you are used to noise. Horses for courses I think xx

Untrue I'm afraid. The majority of traffic noise comes from tyres rather than engines.

We did get used to it__… a hedge blocked much of the noise. Inside , because of double glazing we hardly heard it and guests always said they were surprised not to hear it.

we also put a water feature in the garden which drew your ear to a nice noise.

I originally ruled out the house which was otherwise perfect . Glad I didn’t .

I was ok with it until lockdown and the reduction of traffic noise then it really bothered me. Really enjoy new house as road is pretty peaceful.

Yea early 20’s (London). No now I’m 50’s. If I was desperate then yes.

I have lived by a main road for nearly 41 years. I also live under the flight path of Heathrow airport. I can honestly say that I really don't notice the noise now. The level of traffic noise is reduced somewhat by the council planting loads of shrubs on the grass verges between where my flat is and the main road. As for the planes,when I first moved here,I thought I'd never get used to it,with flights starting at 4.45am and going on until 11.30om. But I can honestly say that within a few months,I was barely noticing it.

It varies, some people learn to not hear certain noise but still get irritated by other ones.
Take alarm clocks for example, some people slept through them but other never do. Some don't hear traffic but can't stand a clock tick.

I never did either. I am very noise sensitive though.

I'm deaf but the traffic has got worse here over the last 29 years. So no. It's awful. Can hear it now.