Economy
Pinpointing the Health Impacts of Urban Noise
Researcher Erica Walker wants to change the way cities think about their aural landscapes.
A taxi honks its horn. A delivery driver guides his noisy two-wheeled cart, stacked high with boxes, across the street. And underground, the subway rumbles. Erica Walker wants to capture it all.
For the past year, the Ph.D. candidate at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health has been bicycling between Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville, Massachusetts, with a decibel meter. Her aim is to measure just how loud different neighborhoods, streets, even crosswalks are. At the same time, she asks residents to fill out surveys about the impact city noises have on their lives and sanity.