A study linked loud traffic with strokes and other health problems

The environmental cost of car-reliance in cities typically focuses on air pollution, and all the damage particulate matter does to human lungs and lives. But road noise also has an impact on health and well-being—and it’s hardly a trivial one, as shown by new study published in the European Heart Journal.

The findings fit well with previous studies of traffic and health. While there have been relatively few studies of traffic sound and severe illness, according to the researchers, most of the ones that do exist show the same sort of negative outcomes found in the London population. Any full reckoning of the social cost of city driving must take this convincing body of research into account.