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How to get a quiet life back on track

By Wang Rui (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-21 09:26

Every night, I struggle to fall asleep because of the maddening noise from subway Line 13. Getting to sleep is torture instead of a joy for me and my family.

It's not rare to find people suffering from noise pollution because many public transport projects have been built near residential communities. City planners and subway builders should try every means at their disposal to keep noise at reasonable levels before they start to build a subway line. But they apparently often fail to do so.

Researchers from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle have found that exposure to excessive noise for long periods of time may pose a threat to people's hearing, even leading to noise-induced hearing loss.

One of my neighbors asked for a sound test from Tsinghua University's architecture and environment center last year. The result showed that the sound level at night was far higher than recommended.

Apart from noise pollution, vibration is another environmental public nuisance.

One of my friends who lives in Tiantongyuan, a large community in the city's north that is close to the first station of subway Line 5, told me she can not only hear an approaching train but see it in the vibrating crockery in her kitchen.

Ironically, the new subway lines are sparking controversy because they are being built close to residential communities - the very communities they were built to serve.

Residents have expressed their concerns by writing petition letters and calling the mayor's hotline.

Residents near Sihui station on the Batong line in the east of the city are collecting signatures for a petition they will send to the local government on Feb 1 as part of their call for the installation of a soundproof wall near their homes. And residents in a large residential community in the west of the city are awaiting results after they presented a petition to the local government against a proposed new subway line near their estate.

As my neighbors and I lie away every night due to the rumbling trains, we are also thinking of what we should do to get our quiet life back.