Traffic causes 80% of the noise in cities

According to the 2015 Paris Agreements, next year 145 Spanish cities of over 50,000 inhabitants will have to enable areas of low emissions proportional to the size of their population. There are many benefits involved in this initiative and they have a significant effect on our physical and mental health. According to Izaskun Chinchilla in her book ‘La ciudad de los cuidados’ (The caring city) (Catarata), this will encourage a more efficient energy consumption and less dependence on petrol and it will also reduce pollution, which causes nine million premature deaths in the world per year according to ‘The Lancet’.

Additionally, the urban surface area devoted to other uses that are not traffic and parking will increase. The author recalls that private vehicles remain stationary 90% of the day and they also form the means of transport that occupies most space when travelling (90 times more than if the same journey is using the underground railway).

Traffic is responsible for 80% of the noise in cities and according to European Union data: two out of three residents in medium-sized or large Spanish cities live in noise environments that are considered to be unacceptable. In the short term, exposure to these noise levels causes discomfort, communication problems and sleep disorders, while in the long term, it generates insomnia, heart diseases, depression or irritability.