2016 GREATER BOSTON NOISE REPORT – Press Release

DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE HERE

How Loud is YOUR Neighborhood?

The Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Report is Now Available!

BOSTON, MA – October, 2016 Erica Walker, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is releasing The Greater Boston Neighborhood Report on October 24, 2016. This report is a detailed analysis of her findings from 2016 The Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Survey.

HOW LOUD? This was the motivating question for Walker, who, two years ago, set out to find the answer to this question within the City of Boston as a part of her dissertation entitled: Noise and Health: Exposures, Experiments, and Epidemiology. From February 2015 – February 2016, she measured the ambient sound levels at over 400 sites within the City of Boston. However, while out in the field collecting noise measurements, residents routinely approached her to vent their frustration about noise in their community. Her goal for developing and conducting the National Neighborhood Noise Survey was to address what she felt to be an ignored aspect of urbanization—noise pollution and, in particular, the human response to environmental noise. The survey gave residents a space to express their feelings about noise in their community as well as note any physical and psychological reactions they may experience as a result of their exposure. This survey was administered from late fall 2016 until May of 2016 and close to 1,100 survey responses were received.

Using both the data from her sound field measurements along with survey results, Walker (along with researchers Julio Cesar Roman and Marcos Luna) created The Greater Boston Noise Report. This comprehensive and interactive report is the first of its kind in the nation and contains: (1) interactive and downloadable maps of sound levels, sound perception (overall and by common urban sounds such as car horns and aircraft), city noise complaints, and self-reported health effects for both the Greater Boston Area and the City of Boston; (2) detailed analysis of survey results; (3) neighborhood noise report cards, which assigns a letter grade to the quality of Boston neighbourhood soundscapes; and (4) artistic case studies— Community Sound Bites—which consists of photographs and sound recordings of city residents in their neighborhood.

The Greater Boston Noise Report is available online at http://boston.noiseandthecity.org. Erica is currently administering an updated survey, which can be found at: http://noiseandthecity.org/2020-survey. For more information about noiseandthecity.org, please visit www.noiseandthecity.org or contact Erica Walker, Researcher, at Erica@noiseandthecity.org or edw266@mail.harvard.edu. Her phone number is 617 459 3890. The press kit for the report can be at boston.noiseandthecity.org/press-kit.

Erica Walker, Researcher I 617 459 3890 I www.noiseandthecity.org