INTRODUCTION

After we launched The Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Survey late last year, Senior Advisor for Regulatory Reform within the City of Boston, Bryan Glascock, invited me to his office to express his excitement over my taking a closer look at the noise issues in the City of Boston. He, too, is keenly interested in the noise issues here in Boston and towards the end of our meeting gifted (well, temporarily gifted) to me, the first and only comprehensive noise assessment done for the city by the esteemed acoustics firm Bolt Beranek and Newman back in 1971.

This comprehensive assessment was completed over 40 years ago. In many ways this was quite intimidating. Minus the frayed edges and an industrial staple holding it together, the relevance of this work persists even today. The responsibility to carry on the torch felt overwhelming. What could I possibly improve upon?

The answer to this question took some careful thought. However, the answer to this question was rooted in me being true to who I am and choosing a team who shared a similar philosophy. We are not traditionally trained acousticians and were not hired by the City of Boston to compile this report. Rather, we are a mix of academics, public health practitioners, urban planners, public policy professionals, geographers, artists, and city dwellers drawn together because we are all deeply interested in exploring noise issues in our city.  In particular, we were interested in understanding:

• Neighborhood variation in sound levels

• Neighborhood variation in sound annoyance—overall and by source

• Determinants of neighborhood annoyance—overall and by source

• Self-reported health impacts from neighborhood noise exposure

• Noise abatement strategies practiced by community residents

To accomplish these goals, we:

• Gathered sound measurements at 400 sites within the City of Boston conducted during various times of the day and day of the week to assess average sound levels in the City.

• Conducted the Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Survey to assess the subjective accounts of sound issues from community residents. We are analyzing close to 1,100 surveys.

• Analyzed noise complaint data from the City of Boston.

• Created neighborhood noise report cards, grading each Boston neighborhood based on criteria gleaned from our statistical models of sound levels and sound perception.

• Created a Community Sound Portraits Series, an ongoing community art project, which consists of anecdotal, pictorial, and aural accounts of residents and their feelings on sound in their neighborhood.

It was also very important to me to GIVE BACK from which I have taken. You, The Greater Boston Community, allowed me inside of your homes, your brains, and in your communities, this past year. My goal was to make sure that our findings were accessible and informative to you. None of this would have been possible without your help and we offer this report to you as a token of our deep gratitude.

With this data, we have compiled a report, entitled The Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Report Card, which is broken down into four main categories

• Mapping: Interactive and static maps detailing sound levels, noise sensitivity, noise annoyance to particular urban sounds, noise complaints, and health impacts.

• Survey Results: Responses from the Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Survey including: demographics, responses to questions around sound perception, health impacts, and noise abatement strategies. We also present findings from noise complaint data gathered from the City of Boston.

• Neighborhood Noise Report Cards: Each Boston neighborhood is given a grade based on determinants we found to both positively and negatively influence sound levels and noise perception.

• Soundscapes: Visual and artistic case studies of urban noise.

We welcome you to our 2016 report. We encourage you share our findings via social media, email, and community/advocacy meetings. Additionally, our goal is to make this report a dynamic and inclusive one with regular updates over time. To help us, we invite you to complete our 2020 National Neighborhood Noise Survey and share this with those in your community.

Sincerely,

Erica Walker, Researcher and Founder of Noise and the City