Quiet streets

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, Geneva’s streets are quiet. Most people walk or cycle, the few vehicles are silent and slow, and road surfaces absorb what little noise remains. On every street you can hear birds, conversations and children playing, and people sleep with the windows open in summer. On the lake, sailing boats and electric boats glide silently, and by the water you hear only the wind and the waves.

Again, she couldn’t hear any noisy car traffic or motorboats disturbing the quietness, only silently gliding sailing boats.Grooters, Book 1, Part 16 "2061"

Geneva today

• Geneva has been a pioneer of noise-absorbing road surfaces since 1998, and by the end of 2022 about 98% of the cantonal roads needing noise treatment had one. Yet the volume of traffic still keeps noise above the limits in many streets (Council of State, 2022).
• Since 2022, the canton has been lowering speed limits to reduce noise: 30 km/h day and night in the city centre, and 30 km/h at night on many main roads. Going from 50 to 30 km/h reduces noise by about 3 decibels, the same effect as halving the traffic (Department of Infrastructure, 2022).
• The World Health Organization recommends keeping road traffic noise below 53 decibels on average and 45 at night. Above these levels, noise is linked to heart disease, sleep disturbance and annoyance (WHO, 2018).

Where it is already done

• Lausanne made 30 km/h at night permanent across the city in 2021, after a two-year pilot. Average noise fell by 2 to 3 decibels, equivalent to halving the traffic, and noise peaks fell by 80%.
• Brussels has applied 30 km/h as the general speed limit since January 2021, mainly for road safety; road noise has fallen by 1.5 to 4.8 decibels.
• The Königssee in Bavaria has had only electric passenger boats since 1909: all 19 of them, prized from the start for their silent gliding. On nearby Lake Starnberg, an electric ship now carries up to 300 passengers.

A Pattern Language

Related patterns from the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander and colleagues (1977), a classic of architecture and town planning.

• 11 Local Transport Areas: Alexander and his colleagues propose dividing a city into local areas that cars can enter but not drive through, so that most local trips are made on foot, by bicycle or in slow vehicles, while through traffic stays on the roads around them.
• 59 Quiet Backs: They argue that every building on a busy street needs a quiet side, such as a back path, garden or courtyard away from the traffic, where people can withdraw from the noise.

How far along

Political will We know how to do it. Someone has to decide to.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

1. 2027Nobody in Geneva sleeps above the legal night-time noise limits: 30 km/h at night wherever it is needed, and noise radars that can fine excessively loud vehicles.
2. 203130 km/h becomes the default on all city streets, day and night; boats near the city’s shores must be electric or under sail.
3. 2041Most local trips are made on foot or by bicycle, the city centre is free of private cars, and nobody is exposed to traffic noise above federal limits.
4. 2051Road traffic noise stays below the World Health Organization’s recommendations across the canton.
5. 2061As Verity hears it at the Jardin Anglais: no traffic noise, no motorboats, only sailing boats gliding silently.

What moves it

Human needs it serves

Open questions

• How can Geneva close the gap between the federal noise limits and the stricter World Health Organization recommendations?
• How can electric vehicles stay safe for pedestrians without the artificial warning sounds that some countries now require?
• Who decides how quiet the lake should be, when it is shared by several cantons and France?

Sources

1. Council of State of Geneva: reply to written question QUE 1803-A on road traffic noise (November 2022, in French)
2. State of Geneva, Department of Infrastructure: Modérer la vitesse pour lutter contre le bruit routier (October 2022, in French)
3. Queen Mary University of London: Reduce traffic noise to prevent heart disease, on the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines (October 2018)
4. Bayerische Seenschifffahrt: About the company and the history of electric boats on the Königssee

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