Noise study of Swiss cities – Life is loudest in Lugano and Geneva – News
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According to the research, Lugano and Geneva are the loudest cities. The most peaceful place to live is in the federal capital.
Which cities are most plagued by noise? The Zürcher Kantonalbank pursued this question in a new study. The ZKB economists examined all Swiss residential buildings to determine how exposed the buildings are to road noise.
It shows: Zurich, the largest Swiss city, is not the loudest. Noise pollution is significantly higher in Geneva, Lugano and Lausanne than in Zurich. In Geneva, every third residential address is exposed to a sound level of more than 60 decibels. That corresponds to a lawn mower from ten meters away.
According to the study authors, this residential noise should be closed. In Geneva, 94 percent of all residential addresses are exposed to a noise level of over 50 decibels.
Bern is the quietest city
Residents in the cities of Bern, Winterthur and Aarau have to endure the least amount of noise. Bern is the quietest city in Switzerland.
According to the authors, the better performance of German-speaking cities should not lead one to believe that there are no noisy apartments in large cities like Zurich or Winterthur.
The apartments are also exposed to very high levels of street noise along the main traffic axes. The Zürcher Rosengartenstrasse is far from the Zürcherstrasse in Winterthur with 66 decibels even the loudest residential address by far from the Zürcherstrasse.
Less income for landlords
If the landlord is also bad for the wallet, the ZKB calculates. On the noisiest streets and apartments, for example, up to 4 percent cheaper. According to the analysis, the rent losses caused by road noise add up to CHF 320 million annually.
Noise also incurs higher costs for landlords. The authors write that tenant changes would occur frequently, which would lead to greater administrative effort. In addition, the vacancy risk is higher.
She uses federal road noise data for the analysis. In order to quantify the amount of noise costs, it calculates the noise reduction of the net rents for all Swiss rental apartments.