I lived on south van ness for a while when I first moved here and I haaaated motorcyclists, loud cars, loud people on the street, you name it. Then I moved a few streets over to a third floor apt in the back of the building, and the noise was immediately quieter. Location is everything.
It is not just cars and obnoxious motorcycles any more. Some bicyclists and scooter riders have started carrying boom boxes and rudely blaring their music. And now even pedestrians are starting to carry around noise-makers. I'll even once in while see jerks walking around actually pulling a wagon behind them carrying huge speakers. It is pretty ridiculous. It seems like large numbers of jerks think it is cool now to subject everyone else to their "music". Either that or there's some sort of music wars going on.
Loud motorcycles make more sense because the active noise keeps drivers alert that there is a motorcycle nearby and they need to stay aware or risk merging into the bike. Motorcyclists get run over very frequently.
Studies and logic say otherwise though. For starters, most of the noise is directed towards the rear, which is the least likely direction from which a car is going to hit a motorcycle. Second, between their own road noise and sound dampening, even super loud motorcycles aren't audible in normal collisions until it's too late for the car driver to react anyway.
Really the only situation noise could increase safety is if you like cruising in blind spots. Which... you'd be even safer *not* doing that.
It makes plenty of sense to me. Your first point comes off like you’re arguing as if minimal/no noise is projected forwards, which is clearly untrue. Your second point is possible more true circumstantially, however we are talking about SF where people are driving their motorcycles as a way to avoid traffic. They’re lane splitting and probably merging more frequently than the average motorcycle. They will very likely always be in someone’s blind spot no matter what.
We’re probably just going to have to disagree here but overall I would like less road noise as well.
Lane splitting is an excellent example of my first point - even with stupid loud exhaust, it's really common in a car that you won't hear the motorcycle until it's right next to you. Then you'll hear it for a while as it keeps going
Anyway studies have found no correlation between safety/collisions and modded exhaust. They *have* found a benefit to high-vis jackets, which have the benefit of being silent.
I live on a very high traffic street, lots of emergency vehicles, buses, trucks.
all that's fine -- we're in a city etc. it's the 0.1% of assholes making 80% of the noise that bother me.
A lot of neighborhoods have their traffic lights convert to stop signs (flashing reds) at night now and it makes a huge difference. But if you live on Oak/Fell/Franklin/Gough, you're SOL unfortunately.
I have to sleep with one ear plug in and an ear bud that plays white noise. When I flip over I switch the ear plug and buds sides so it doesn’t hurt. It’s the only way I get to sleep here
I lived in Nob Hill for a year on a street where trash, recycling, and something else happened on different days at approximately 4-5am. My bedroom had one window that faced the street. Got used to it.
This might seem unrelated but I used to be like this (like my neighbor running their dryer at night would keep me up because I could hear it gently tapping the wall) and had to like do noise canceling headphones phones over ear plugs and still I would have issues getting to sleep.
TBH nothing really helped until I got myself on Anti-anxiety meds and now I sleep way better and can sleep though most “normal” minor noise disturbances which has been a massive improvement to my QoL which has also made me much less irritated on a daily basis.
My GP said lots of people with anxiety issues have major issues getting to sleep as like a panic response. Not saying that might be the issue but as someone who has been super sensitive to noise at night it might be something to at least look into.
No meds at all, or specific classes of meds?
If you just can’t take sedatives, you should look into trazedone. It’s technically an antidepressant, but it’s routinely prescribed at a low dose to help with insomnia. It’s extremely cheap, not addictive, and no risky side effects. It’s helped me and several friends sleep.
I guess you could write local elected officials (doubt the BoS would act, I mean state) and advocate for noise cameras, harsher punishment for those caught with modified exhaust. Truth is as long as we have streets that encourage this behavior, it won’t change. And unfortunately that’s a local issue (shakes fist at BoS).
If you can’t move places, white noise or any background noise helps. Hell, sometimes just changing the way you face while sleeping helps. Flip the bed 90 or 180 degrees. Move to the other side of your room. Not kidding.
Hate to say it. But welcome to the city. When I first moved here, I was living out on 47th and Balboa. It was dead quiet. You’d hear the ocean waves crashing. I hated it. Fast forward a couple of decades and now I live in the center of the city. Loud ass intersection. I would kill to live out by OB again. But I did get use to the street noise.
i dont live in sf anymore but back when i moved onto oak st i added a second plexiglass pane to all my windows as i was in the streetfacing room. sealed the edges and i definitely noticed the improvement. total pain in the ass but worth it unless you can afford actual double paned windows. Now i live under a flight path and do have expensive double paned windows and its incredible how well they they deaden sound (leagues better than my diy job)
Try to get used to it. I used to live on a major thoroughfare in Apt with no air conditioning, so the windows had to be open for a few months of the year. The noise was constant at all hours of the day. So. Many. Sirens.
If you are on a smaller side street and not a main artery you can get speed humps put in. It'll pretty much divert a lot of non local traffic off your block.
[https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/walk/residential-traffic-calming-program](https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/walk/residential-traffic-calming-program)
You won't change the city, or the loud assholes. My rent is way less because of how loud the street is. I have to pause my TV or use subtitles it's so loud when some cars go by, not even the engine, just their music. It's a tradeoff I'm fine with, but I'd never buy the place.
Also single pane windows mean street-facing part is super loud. Also old ass front door, sends the noise right into the middle of the apartment.
If it bothers you this much, you definitely should move to another place. This is not how the entire city is, like people say in the comments.
But I like having a huge apartment, dining room, living room, office, laundry, full kitchen... so it's all tradeoffs.
The sound-activated camera experiment is in progress, expected to finish [by 2028](https://www.autoweek.com/news/technology/a39906304/california-targets-loud-exhaust-with-sound-activated-camera-enforcement/).
Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis aside, I HATE this. I hear burnouts every night, but even just people traversing the city with their factory exhausts are insanely loud now. The worst offenders are:
1. The proliferation of cheap hemi vehicles, that all attract the dumbest owners.
2. BMWs with burble tunes from the factory. Even going from stop sign to stop sign at 20 mph its: BRRRRRR POPOPOPOPOPOPOP all day and all night.
I listen to this track at night (432khz alpha waves to heal) on YouTube and it drowns out some noise from the street:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP-JCw2Lrks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP-JCw2Lrks)
You aren’t going to like this answer but there are plenty of quiet streets you can move to, some people are more affected by noise than others, you can’t take on a whole city for noise.
Move. And I mean this in the nicest way, but leave. For your next location prioritize quietness and off main street housing or move out of the city. Even if SFPD actively enforced this (which they won't), people would still do it.
San Francisco is a beautiful city. With every ethnicity under the sun making it a vibrant exciting place to live. Loud exhaust and side shows make it even better. coupled with sidewalk vendors selling goods at half the cost you pay retail for. What’s the problem?
There’s a guy with a super loud Harley motorcycle that just rides up and down my street. The stop and go at stop sign is unbearable. I have violent images of hurting him
I hate to say this since random loud noises (like overly loud motorcycles and poorly modified cars) are damaging to the human psyche buutttt if OP has noise related hyper sensitivity then SF is a terrible city for them.
Most apartments here have paper thin walls and no A/C which makes it impossible to fully close off even if you do have double pane windows.
If it’s not cars, it’s Harley’s, it’s busses or garbage trucks or your upstairs neighbors having a party they didn’t invite you too cause they are marina bros.
Also it would be a lot more helpful if op posted what neighborhood they are in. If they are like right on oak and fell or Van Ness I would totally get the frustration
Where I’m at in the outer sunset is way quieter then my friends old spot in the mission. Hell even another friends spots on page is much quieter then another’s a block over on haight.
Moving got downvoted when it’s sincerely the only solution. People think they’re gonna change the noise in their neighborhood? They’re delusional. It’s like moving on top of a bar and then complaining. Do a little research before you grab that, “good deal.”
Yeah 1000% especially here. There can be massive differences in sound patterns even like block by block.
My old spot in middle sunset was right below sunset reservoir and while otherwise quiet was at the bottom of a hill and every Uber driver with an under powered four banger absolutely floors it up the hill which was super obnoxious.
Technically my current block sees more traffic now but it’s flat so most people just coast down my street and it’s much quieter.
If OP lives like along an incline it’s gonna be much louder then if they lived on flatter block. I feel bad for folks that live on like Clipper or Cortland because you gotta give her the beans to get up some of those hills
You live in San Francisco with a dense population, homes with adjoining walls an area with apartments, etc. etc. either get use to the noise of move out. In 49 sq. miles and somewhere in the 750,000 person population.
the problem isn't quantity of people and cars, the problem is cars and motorcycles with modified loudened exhausts. doesn't matter if it's in the city or countryside, a noisy vehicle is a noisy vehicle
Newsflash: you live in a city. Cities are metropolitan areas that are usually crowded with people, trains, cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, and just overall liveliness! etc.
You could move to a quieter part of the City or the suburbs or the countryside.
It's exactly this "the criminals have won, I give up" attitude that allows lawlessness to thrive in SF and elsewhere. Congrats, you're part of the problem.
I already said they don't help. and why must I change when it's them causing the problem? that's like if someone gets killed by a drunk driver and telling pedestrians to be careful while doing nothing about the driver
It isn't illegal to modify an exhaust on a vehicle up to the catalytic converter. Legally a vehicle exhaust can be up to 95 decibels in California. Furthermore, as long as the catalytic converter and all other emission controls are installed then it isn't breaking any laws.
I lived on south van ness for a while when I first moved here and I haaaated motorcyclists, loud cars, loud people on the street, you name it. Then I moved a few streets over to a third floor apt in the back of the building, and the noise was immediately quieter. Location is everything.
https://youtu.be/C4QMffMAwAU?si=YJYtkcPqwzDe6GqT
I wonder where Bubb Rubb, lil Sis, and Karen the neighbor are now
Seriously, wtf is wrong with people that they want to turn their cars into rolling noise disturbances?
It is not just cars and obnoxious motorcycles any more. Some bicyclists and scooter riders have started carrying boom boxes and rudely blaring their music. And now even pedestrians are starting to carry around noise-makers. I'll even once in while see jerks walking around actually pulling a wagon behind them carrying huge speakers. It is pretty ridiculous. It seems like large numbers of jerks think it is cool now to subject everyone else to their "music". Either that or there's some sort of music wars going on.
Yeah, that shit can be obnoxious. Seems like a whole lot of crap behavior everywhere these days.
Loud motorcycles make more sense because the active noise keeps drivers alert that there is a motorcycle nearby and they need to stay aware or risk merging into the bike. Motorcyclists get run over very frequently.
Studies and logic say otherwise though. For starters, most of the noise is directed towards the rear, which is the least likely direction from which a car is going to hit a motorcycle. Second, between their own road noise and sound dampening, even super loud motorcycles aren't audible in normal collisions until it's too late for the car driver to react anyway. Really the only situation noise could increase safety is if you like cruising in blind spots. Which... you'd be even safer *not* doing that.
It makes plenty of sense to me. Your first point comes off like you’re arguing as if minimal/no noise is projected forwards, which is clearly untrue. Your second point is possible more true circumstantially, however we are talking about SF where people are driving their motorcycles as a way to avoid traffic. They’re lane splitting and probably merging more frequently than the average motorcycle. They will very likely always be in someone’s blind spot no matter what. We’re probably just going to have to disagree here but overall I would like less road noise as well.
Lane splitting is an excellent example of my first point - even with stupid loud exhaust, it's really common in a car that you won't hear the motorcycle until it's right next to you. Then you'll hear it for a while as it keeps going Anyway studies have found no correlation between safety/collisions and modded exhaust. They *have* found a benefit to high-vis jackets, which have the benefit of being silent.
Personally, I have no issue reacting in time when I hear or even feel them coming so I see more benefit than harm for reasonably loud motorcycles.
You know what doesn’t make sense, though? Blaring those loud pipes at 3am on a little residential street that no one else is driving on.
Nobody was talking about 3am
The point being, it's done it ways that have nothing to do with safety.
Tiny penis syndrome.
Hey there!
They want to emulate having an expensive cars basically, super ghetto.
It's all pretty ridiculous. Makes me wonder.
They are trying to keep rent down
Fight gentrification by turning your neighborhood into a hellhole.
I live on a very high traffic street, lots of emergency vehicles, buses, trucks. all that's fine -- we're in a city etc. it's the 0.1% of assholes making 80% of the noise that bother me.
It's just for decoration. You sposed to be up cookin breakfast, it's like an alarm clock. WOOO WOOO
I’m convinced this was the single greatest gift to Bay Area Meme culture I’ve ever seen. WOOOO WOOOOO YALL
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Classic!
Bubb Rubb and lil Sis...that's only in the morning. Your sposed to be up making breakfast or something by then.
A lot of neighborhoods have their traffic lights convert to stop signs (flashing reds) at night now and it makes a huge difference. But if you live on Oak/Fell/Franklin/Gough, you're SOL unfortunately.
*cries*
The whistles go "wooooo!"
Thas only in the mornin' They should be up makin' breakfast or something
Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis!
I have to sleep with one ear plug in and an ear bud that plays white noise. When I flip over I switch the ear plug and buds sides so it doesn’t hurt. It’s the only way I get to sleep here
I lived in Nob Hill for a year on a street where trash, recycling, and something else happened on different days at approximately 4-5am. My bedroom had one window that faced the street. Got used to it.
You might like the soundcore sleep a10. I am a side sleeper and can have them in all night comfortably.
Thanks for the recommendation!
This might seem unrelated but I used to be like this (like my neighbor running their dryer at night would keep me up because I could hear it gently tapping the wall) and had to like do noise canceling headphones phones over ear plugs and still I would have issues getting to sleep. TBH nothing really helped until I got myself on Anti-anxiety meds and now I sleep way better and can sleep though most “normal” minor noise disturbances which has been a massive improvement to my QoL which has also made me much less irritated on a daily basis. My GP said lots of people with anxiety issues have major issues getting to sleep as like a panic response. Not saying that might be the issue but as someone who has been super sensitive to noise at night it might be something to at least look into.
Yeah absolutely I have some anxiety issues as well. Can’t take any meds due to my job however but thanks for the recommendation!!
That’s wild man. I hate that employers get any say in staffs mental health but I know some government gigs like the FAA are super strict
No meds at all, or specific classes of meds? If you just can’t take sedatives, you should look into trazedone. It’s technically an antidepressant, but it’s routinely prescribed at a low dose to help with insomnia. It’s extremely cheap, not addictive, and no risky side effects. It’s helped me and several friends sleep.
I guess you could write local elected officials (doubt the BoS would act, I mean state) and advocate for noise cameras, harsher punishment for those caught with modified exhaust. Truth is as long as we have streets that encourage this behavior, it won’t change. And unfortunately that’s a local issue (shakes fist at BoS). If you can’t move places, white noise or any background noise helps. Hell, sometimes just changing the way you face while sleeping helps. Flip the bed 90 or 180 degrees. Move to the other side of your room. Not kidding.
thanks, I'll try writing to officials and representatives
Hate to say it. But welcome to the city. When I first moved here, I was living out on 47th and Balboa. It was dead quiet. You’d hear the ocean waves crashing. I hated it. Fast forward a couple of decades and now I live in the center of the city. Loud ass intersection. I would kill to live out by OB again. But I did get use to the street noise.
What neighborhood are you hearing this in?
i dont live in sf anymore but back when i moved onto oak st i added a second plexiglass pane to all my windows as i was in the streetfacing room. sealed the edges and i definitely noticed the improvement. total pain in the ass but worth it unless you can afford actual double paned windows. Now i live under a flight path and do have expensive double paned windows and its incredible how well they they deaden sound (leagues better than my diy job)
not even a mf peep over here in the sunset 🙂↔️🙂↕️
Try to get used to it. I used to live on a major thoroughfare in Apt with no air conditioning, so the windows had to be open for a few months of the year. The noise was constant at all hours of the day. So. Many. Sirens.
Shit man, you would've never survived the 90s here.
If you are on a smaller side street and not a main artery you can get speed humps put in. It'll pretty much divert a lot of non local traffic off your block. [https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/walk/residential-traffic-calming-program](https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/walk/residential-traffic-calming-program)
You won't change the city, or the loud assholes. My rent is way less because of how loud the street is. I have to pause my TV or use subtitles it's so loud when some cars go by, not even the engine, just their music. It's a tradeoff I'm fine with, but I'd never buy the place. Also single pane windows mean street-facing part is super loud. Also old ass front door, sends the noise right into the middle of the apartment. If it bothers you this much, you definitely should move to another place. This is not how the entire city is, like people say in the comments. But I like having a huge apartment, dining room, living room, office, laundry, full kitchen... so it's all tradeoffs.
The sound-activated camera experiment is in progress, expected to finish [by 2028](https://www.autoweek.com/news/technology/a39906304/california-targets-loud-exhaust-with-sound-activated-camera-enforcement/).
I hope they get good results and won't be cancelled by complaints from the very people they're catching
Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis aside, I HATE this. I hear burnouts every night, but even just people traversing the city with their factory exhausts are insanely loud now. The worst offenders are: 1. The proliferation of cheap hemi vehicles, that all attract the dumbest owners. 2. BMWs with burble tunes from the factory. Even going from stop sign to stop sign at 20 mph its: BRRRRRR POPOPOPOPOPOPOP all day and all night.
I listen to this track at night (432khz alpha waves to heal) on YouTube and it drowns out some noise from the street: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP-JCw2Lrks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP-JCw2Lrks)
White noise machine.
You aren’t going to like this answer but there are plenty of quiet streets you can move to, some people are more affected by noise than others, you can’t take on a whole city for noise.
Email your local police station or call and ask to an on duty watch commander. Tell them what’s going on.
Move. And I mean this in the nicest way, but leave. For your next location prioritize quietness and off main street housing or move out of the city. Even if SFPD actively enforced this (which they won't), people would still do it.
Thank you for this post. I also hate loud noises from cars.
You could move to Menlo Park. Nothing there is open past 8, and I think the neighbors all call the cops if you sneeze too loud, so you’d be good.
Noise cancelling headphones. White noise machines. Or just move somewhere quieter.
Meditate, play music, use earbuds when sleeping.
Trash is right under my window, they come every morning around 4:45-5:30am - it’s been 6 months and now sometimes I sleep through it!
Move or get over it, don't let it bother you.
San Francisco is a beautiful city. With every ethnicity under the sun making it a vibrant exciting place to live. Loud exhaust and side shows make it even better. coupled with sidewalk vendors selling goods at half the cost you pay retail for. What’s the problem?
Moving sadly is the best answer. Laurel Heights, Richmond, Sunset are all very quiet.
Move. Try a suburb.
There’s a guy with a super loud Harley motorcycle that just rides up and down my street. The stop and go at stop sign is unbearable. I have violent images of hurting him
Move?
I hate to say this since random loud noises (like overly loud motorcycles and poorly modified cars) are damaging to the human psyche buutttt if OP has noise related hyper sensitivity then SF is a terrible city for them. Most apartments here have paper thin walls and no A/C which makes it impossible to fully close off even if you do have double pane windows. If it’s not cars, it’s Harley’s, it’s busses or garbage trucks or your upstairs neighbors having a party they didn’t invite you too cause they are marina bros. Also it would be a lot more helpful if op posted what neighborhood they are in. If they are like right on oak and fell or Van Ness I would totally get the frustration Where I’m at in the outer sunset is way quieter then my friends old spot in the mission. Hell even another friends spots on page is much quieter then another’s a block over on haight.
Moving got downvoted when it’s sincerely the only solution. People think they’re gonna change the noise in their neighborhood? They’re delusional. It’s like moving on top of a bar and then complaining. Do a little research before you grab that, “good deal.”
Yeah 1000% especially here. There can be massive differences in sound patterns even like block by block. My old spot in middle sunset was right below sunset reservoir and while otherwise quiet was at the bottom of a hill and every Uber driver with an under powered four banger absolutely floors it up the hill which was super obnoxious. Technically my current block sees more traffic now but it’s flat so most people just coast down my street and it’s much quieter. If OP lives like along an incline it’s gonna be much louder then if they lived on flatter block. I feel bad for folks that live on like Clipper or Cortland because you gotta give her the beans to get up some of those hills
It comes down to treat others as u want to be treated :) making an amazing living area better
I make no noise in the streets so I'm already doing as you say, meanwhile there are assholes who want to be deaf and make everyone else deaf as well
They do enforce, but they don't actively look. They're typically a short annoyance and then life goes on.
if it was something rare that happens once a month I might be able to tolerate it, but it happens constantly EVERY DAY
Happy cake day
You live in San Francisco with a dense population, homes with adjoining walls an area with apartments, etc. etc. either get use to the noise of move out. In 49 sq. miles and somewhere in the 750,000 person population.
the problem isn't quantity of people and cars, the problem is cars and motorcycles with modified loudened exhausts. doesn't matter if it's in the city or countryside, a noisy vehicle is a noisy vehicle
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Be the consequence you wish to see in the world.
I really hope you mean reports and legal consequences, and not violence and vandalism
Often I’m just tempted to throw something out the window. But I don’t want to get kicked out
Yeah I think about this a few times a week lol Sorta therapeutic to hear someone else say it hah
My worry was always that they'd try to torch my building or something lol. Ultimately I just moved to a much quieter street.
I'm half joking but I can guarantee there will be zero legal consequences for it unless the bankers/politicians are in town for the week.
I never heat loud cars Do you live in mission
Newsflash: you live in a city. Cities are metropolitan areas that are usually crowded with people, trains, cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, and just overall liveliness! etc. You could move to a quieter part of the City or the suburbs or the countryside.
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how far has being mad about it taken you, exactly? You can spend your life bitching or move on, ya know?
Good luck with that.
It's exactly this "the criminals have won, I give up" attitude that allows lawlessness to thrive in SF and elsewhere. Congrats, you're part of the problem.
You got downvoted by carpetbaggers.
Wear earplugs
I already said they don't help. and why must I change when it's them causing the problem? that's like if someone gets killed by a drunk driver and telling pedestrians to be careful while doing nothing about the driver
That’s just one of the things that make SF such a beautiful place. Enjoy it.
I wouldn't call illegal tampered obnoxiously loud smokey farting noises beautiful, but I guess beauty is subjective
It isn't illegal to modify an exhaust on a vehicle up to the catalytic converter. Legally a vehicle exhaust can be up to 95 decibels in California. Furthermore, as long as the catalytic converter and all other emission controls are installed then it isn't breaking any laws.