Noise Pollution Avoidance Stategies

[Joe]

The first time I came to BA in 2009, I rented an apartment for one month, sight unseen, near the corner of Juncal and Libertad. The apartment was in the front and on the second floor. As many of you have guessed by now, this was a disastrous choice. Juncal is a very narrow street at that point and endless collectivos rumble past only a few meters away from this apartment.

So what are your strategies for getting a quiet apartment?

Here are mine:

• Visit the apartment if you are local
• Contrafrente (back of the building) apartments are preferable. High floor is better for more light.
• Middle apartments (interno?) avoid at all cost (no sun, reflected noise and cooking smells)
• Front apartments on a very high floor, if contrafrente is not available. Check how many buses go by.
• In general the older the building the better the sound insulation. New glass towers are the worse. You can even hear your neighbors' tinkling.

*************

I'm currently in Ecuador and there is a noise problem that I've never encountered before in any other country. Everyone here has these awful after-market car alarms of the type that use to be popular in North America about 20 years ago. The kind that cycle through about 8 varieties of alarm. Here in Ecuador you often walk past a car with the occupant inside with the alarm going off. Or sometimes people just play with the alarm, turning it on (Beep) turning it off (Beep, Beep) if they are waiting in the car. Since I made the mistake of renting an apartment near a bank and some other retail establishments I would hear the bloody car alarms all day. It wasn't rare that multiple car alarms were going off simultaneously. I was wondering if Colombia also has this car alarm culture. I spent an extended period in Peru and there was NOT this car alarm issue.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

The first time I came to BA in 2009, I rented an apartment for one month, sight unseen, near the corner of Juncal and Libertad. The apartment was in the front and on the second floor. As many of you have guessed by now, this was a disastrous choice. Juncal is a very narrow street at that point and endless collectivos rumble past only a few meters away from this apartment.

So what are your strategies for getting a quiet apartment?

Here are mine:

• Visit the apartment if you are local
• Contrafrente (back of the building) apartments are preferable. High floor is better for more light.
• Middle apartments (interno?) avoid at all cost (no sun, reflected noise and cooking smells)
• Front apartments on a very high floor, if contrafrente is not available. Check how many buses go by.
• In general the older the building the better the sound insulation. New glass towers are the worse. You can even hear your neighbors' tinkling.

*************

I'm currently in Ecuador and there is a noise problem that I've never encountered before in any other country. Everyone here has these awful after-market car alarms of the type that use to be popular in North America about 20 years ago. The kind that cycle through about 8 varieties of alarm. Here in Ecuador you often walk past a car with the occupant inside with the alarm going off. Or sometimes people just play with the alarm, turning it on (Beep) turning it off (Beep, Beep) if they are waiting in the car. Since I made the mistake of renting an apartment near a bank and some other retail establishments I would hear the bloody car alarms all day. It wasn't rare that multiple car alarms were going off simultaneously. I was wondering if Colombia also has this car alarm culture. I spent an extended period in Peru and there was NOT this car alarm issue.

When last in Colombia, I was staying in a good but fairly simple hotel in Cartagena's old walled city, and it was pretty quiet at night. Mind you, there's not any parking along many of the narrow colonial streets there, and I can't recall any alarms there. But that may not be typical of other parts of Colombia.

 

[scotttswan]

It's even worse when the fucking birds start Imitating the car alarms

 

[jantango]

I'm lucky to have live in a quiet block in Balvanera where I have total silence all day and night. I don't know how portenos manage living on an avenue with traffic and the pollution all the time.

I use the buses and always wear earplugs. Every time the doors open and close, they emit a loud sound that must be damaging the hearing of every bus driver. Most buses have noisy brakes as well. It's no surprise that Buenos Aires was rated the third noisiest city in the world. I'm doing my best to prevent hearing loss. Living in a quiet building is a priority.

Selecting apartments at least one block from bus routes and heavy traffic is my recommendation.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

A few years ago, we replaced the sliding glass doors to our balcony with double-paned versions, and the difference is spectacular. Can barely hear the noisiest colectivos or motos even though our location (Árabe Siria at Cerviño) gets lots of traffic at times. The only other problem we've had is a family upstairs whose hobby seemed to be rearranging the furniture at 2 a.m., but they've fortunately moved.