Noise complaints during a pandemic: A longitudinal analysis

Abstract COVID-19 has affected people’s lives in different ways from reduced mobility and staying-at-home orders to other daily life routines. These changes have, in turn, affected the quality of life in urban environments including air quality and noise. The noise aspect, for example, suggests quieter environments due to fewer vehicles on streets, and less human activities. On the other hand, staying at home may cause more activities happening at the building level, i.e., more people in buildings may make more noise for neighbors. In order to understand this nexus, the study examines the noise complaints data in Dallas, USA. To do this, the study first compares the noise complaints after the COVID-19 intercourse and the same data period in 2019. Findings surprisingly show reduced noise complaints during the COVID-19 time frame by about 14% compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. The majority of this reduction occurred in and around the city center. In other words, the noise complaints seem more spatially dispersed at the outskirts of the city. Another finding that directs more detailed analyses, however, considers the massive reduction of ridership, traffic circulation, and building permits. This needs some other techniques for determining the sources for incommensurate noise complaints.