I had never seen a clock which also measures the sound of the traffic. I am used to spending my time worrying about the air quality but now I have noise pollution on my mind. It was a very quiet day when I walked past the sign and I didn’t have any idea of what a safe level of sound is supposed to be.
I went home and Googled it and found that 58 decibels is about the same as having quiet music on in a room. Mind you, this is one quiet road junction and not on a busy thoroughfare where there are traffic lights and impatient drivers.
But it’s interesting that the Shanghai local government is paying attention to noise pollution – or at least that’s what I assume is the reason for this electronic display. I would like to put one on the junction of Maoming Lu and HuaiHai Lu and see what happens when the lights turn green and the car at the front falters and waits half a second to pull away.
I wonder what the decibel level is in the headphones I wear back and for to work when I am trying to block out the surrounding noise pollution – I imagine that it will be much higher than the alternative. Whatever you do, failing wearing ear plugs it’s impossible to live in Shanghai in peace and quiet but if you were looking for that kind of life, you’d probably live somewhere else anyway.