This Just In . . .
Researchers find that people who live along traffic-clogged streets are crankier, more curmudgeonly, have shorter tempers and attention spans, seem more bitter, have trouble focusing and maintaining relationships, and generally are just less friendly*:
New Yorkers who live on blocks with heavy traffic are less friendly toward their neighbors and more likely to stay indoors than those who live on quieter streets, according to the report by the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
They also get less sleep and have more trouble enjoying a television show or a family meal.
Dubbed “Traffic’s Human Toll,” the 14-month study zeroed in on a range of residential blocks in four neighborhoods in order to measure the effect all that honking and exhaust has on quality of life.
The study found that 49 percent of the people interviewed said less traffic would “totally improve” their quality of life. On heavier-traffic streets, the percentage rose to 62 percent.
Residents of the heavily trafficked blocks in the survey said they experienced no shortage of road rage in their living rooms.
“This should be a quiet street, not an access road to the BQE,” said Charles Thompson, who lives on an often-bumper-to-bumper block of Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights. “It’s a nightmare.”
It’s hard to love thy neighbor amid all the honking, others on the block said.
“I know my neighbors, but I don’t want to stand out there talking much,” said Doris Kirtzman. “It wasn’t anything like this when I moved here 30 years ago — I can barely hear the Yankee game with all the trucks or SUVs on this street.”
*I didn’t think I seemed this way.
Posted: October 6th, 2006 | Filed under: Well, What Did You Expect?