No horn, please, for health’s sake
body to survive an imminent “fight for flight” threat by making the heart beat faster, constricting blood vessels and pushing up blood pressure to feed more blood to the brain and muscles. When this physiological stress becomes constant, it leads to heart disease and diabetes, among others.
MEMORY, LEARNING
Traffic noise harm children’s ability to learn as they are more affected than adults by noise while doing tasks involving speech perception and listening comprehension. It also affects learning that doesn’t involve speech perception and listening comprehension, such as short-term memory, reading and writing. This, over time, affects their cognitive development.
Another study in Teheran found it affected the auditory verbal learning and memory of boys more than girls. Exposure to traffic noise causes behavioural problems, particularly hyperactivity and inattention symptoms, in early childhood. Sleeping while exposed to sound of night-time traffic raises children’s blood pressure, raising their risk of heart disease in later life.
SLEEP, MOOD
Night-time traffic noise lowers the quantity of sleep, leading to irritability, lowered attention, delayed response, tiredness and fatigue. People who live near busy streets have difficulty falling asleep, wake up frequently during the night, and get up early, found a population-based study from Norway, where traffic movement is quieter than on India’s roads.
People living in areas with high traffic noise were 25 percent more likely than those in quieter neighbourhoods to have symptoms of depression such as sadness, loneliness and trouble concentrating. In developing countries such as India where traffic movement is often more chaotic, mounting stress and irritability fuels hostility and road rage.
NO HORN, PLEASE
Noise hazards can be mitigated by improving traffic management and regulating driving behaviour, which should include both motor and nonmotor road transportation. According to Section 190 (2) of the Central Motor Vehicles Act (2), “Any person who drives or causes or allows to be driven, in any public place a motor vehicle, which violates the standards prescribed in relation to road safety, control of noise and air pollution, shall be punishable for the first offence with a fine of ₹1,000 and for any second or subsequent offence with a fine of ₹2,000.”
Along with fines, the challenge is to make aggressive road warriors aware that noisy driving harms their own health as much as others.