Our surveys show that city residents prefer quiet spaces. Moreover, people find background music in restaurants and coffee shops both loud and disruptive. Others agree! Scientists, health experts, and community members consistently find noise in public areas problematic.
Health Effects of Noise
- National Institute of Health: Information about noise-induced hearing loss.
- American Family Physician: Research article on the permanent effects of noise-induced hearing loss, highlighting the importance of prevention.
Other Quiet Organizations
- SoundPrint: A mobile app that helps you find quiet venues.
- Silencity: Rich blog content on all noise-related topics. Includes resources to other Quiet organizations and Quiet advocates around the world.
- The Quiet Coalition: Organization consisting of science and health professionals addressing the impact of noise on our health, learning, and productivity.
- U.K. PIPEDOWN: Organization dedicated to removing piped music (unwanted and intrusive background music) in public places. Successfully persuaded Gatwick Airport, Sainsbury (supermarket company), and Tesco (retail company) to drop music in their branches. Maintains over a few thousand members with many endorsements from famous celebrities.
- Quiet Scotland: Organization dedicated to removing piped music (unwanted and intrusive background music) in public places. Includes quiet eating, drinking, and shopping places in Scotland as well as links to research on the effects of piped music.
Articles About The Quiet Project (formerly Quiet Ann Arbor)
OTHER Related Articles
- Lights dimmed and noise reduced for sensory-friendly shopping (Mar 2019)
- Dining (Detroit Free Press, July 2019)
- Great food, but please do something about the noise (The Guardian, May 2019)
- WHO wants to limit noise levels in nightclubs to stop millennials going deaf (DailyMail, Feb 2019)
- How listening to music “significantly impairs” creativity (Research, Feb 2019)
- Freedom is ______. (The California Sunday, Jan 2019)
- Hearing loss threatens mind, life and limb (The New York Times, Dec 2018)
- How restaurants got so loud (The Atlantic, Nov 2018)
- Noise exposure is becoming “the new secondhand smoke” (The Washington Post, May 2018)
- U.K. Supermarket to have ‘Quieter Hour’ for people with autism (The New York Times, July 2018)
- Eating out may be bad for your ears (The Washington Post, July 2017)
- The joy of quiet (The New York Times, Feb /2017)
- UK’s first national ‘Quiet Hour’ (Huffington Post, Feb 2017)
- A quiet night out? City pub and Chorlton cafe win award for their ban on playing ‘muzak’ to customers (Manchester Evening News, Nov 2014)
- Science says silence is more important than we think
