Over the last 10 years or so, there’s been a boom in housing developments, and I’ve noticed a great deal of these (apartments, condos, townhouses, housing complexes) have been built right adjacent to either heavily trafficked roads, main streets, or highways. The distance is often such that you can hear vehicular traffic during normal hours and there is noticeable car exhaust odor around the buildings.
I’m aware this is mostly for transportational convenience, but I was wondering how important air quality is for the average person. As in, is it generally acceptable to live right next to a highway or main road which has a high degree of traffic and thus air pollution in the form of particulate matter (PM 2.5 has been linked to cancer and systemic inflammation).
Comments
I never think of pollution when avoiding living near a highway. I think about noise keeping me up at night.
I am not but what people want and what people pay for are two different things. If the price makes sense people will move there.
I think most people are more concerned about the noise pollution than the air pollution. I don’t think the average person thinks a lot about air quality unless it’s exceptionally bad.
That will depend on the area, but I don’t think it’s something most people worry about. The air quality isn’t bad in most of the country.
Particulate pollution is a bigger problem in countries where diesel is popular. Most cars in the US are not diesel.
Pollution isn’t my concern, although maybe it should be … It’s the noise. I could never do it.
In my area they are expanding both roads that skirt my subdivision this summer. They roadway is getting 15′ closer to the back fences. That is to say that what uses to be a 25′ gal is now going to be just enough for a sidewalk and a bit of grass.
It’s going to get so much louder at those houses. I’m happy I’m a few blocks into the subdivision.
It really isn’t a very huge concern unless you’re living very close to a very busy highway. And generally in the US there is at least a solid right of way between highways and residential areas. I think noise pollution is a greater concern to most.
Pollution, eh.
Noise and safety, definitely.
I think you’d be surprised at the amount of traffic what many perceive as main but surface level roads.
East Washington Street, which is what US 40 runs through in Indianapolis, is basically at an all time low of traffic as I-465 and I-70 handle most of the commuter and freight traffic. So living right along Washington Street may not be as bad as you imagine.
Setting a development back a bit from an Interstate can also mitigate a lot of those.
I will say right up against an Interstate is unusual at least in my area. Sometimes you’ll see offices built adjacent to an Interstate since people aren’t living there or spending a lot of time outside. But most apartments near Interstates are actually a good distance away from the Interstate and aren’t right up agains tthem.
I wouldn’t want to live next to a highway because I like being able to go on walks, spend time outside etc and it’s dangerous when cars and trucks are going so fast. Air quality has never been much of a concern for me whether I lived in a major city or more rurally. That might change if Trump dismantles the clean air act and things get bad. But right now, I think most of America has good air quality. But like u said, there are other reasons to not live near a highway.
Honestly, I think about the noise more than I think about air pollution.
I’ve never lived more than 1/2 mile from a major highway in all my life. I’m in my mid 40s and have lived 6 different homes in 2 states. All but 2 of those homes have been near interstate 95 (or route 128, if you’re in MA!).
I’ve never given a thought to the pollution, but I do enjoy the convenience. I find the noise at night rather soothing, oddly enough.
It’s like my white noise. On snowy nights, it’s eerily quiet.
It’s almost unnerving.
Much more comfortable than they should be considering the research showing how many years living near highways takes off your life
In much of the US cars and car fumes are so normalized that people barely think about it, they are much more likely to care about the noise from the highway (which from experience is definitely quite annoying)
Air pollution is not a consideration for most people.
I don’t know what the average American would think, but I just put it in the calculus of figuring out where to live. Also, air pollution has gotten a lot better in my lifetime. If you think it’s bad now, I could keep you entertained for hours with how bad it used to be. Anyway, I live a block away from an Interstate highway, train combo. Granted it’s 30 feet down below the grade, but still a fair amount of noise, and I’m sure, pollution. Why? Trade offs. I’m 5 minutes walk from 4 grocery stores, several restaurants and other services. If there were houses on offer 4 blocks away, we’d have probably done that instead, but houses don’t come on the market very often in this area of town.
I always think about that when I see those houses. Just constantly breathing that stuff in. No thanks.
I grew up in a really small town. I’m picky about how busy the road I live on is. I don’t want to worry about speeders or whatnot.
I don’t live in places where pollution is a consideration. However, this smell of Lime they are using in the fields outside of town is gnarly.
I don’t think about the pollution. I think about where I can afford to live.
Air pollution is way down the list for most people. When choosing a place to live, it’s cost (rent), crime, location, probably cost again (transportation), amenities, cost a 3rd time (cost of living), then maybe noise, followed by pollution.
I’d rather not but I don’t currently have a choice
Interesting to read the comments. I have always considered air pollution as a factor and avoid living next to busy roads or highways ever since I read a study linking living near highways to increased risk of developing asthma.
My husband and I pay attention to air pollution when choosing where to live, but we are the only ones that do based on conversations with friends and family. Most people care more about noise.
I’m a Realtor and most clients do not want their house backing up to or facing a major thoroughfare, much less a highway. I agree that it’s more about noise pollution, traffic, and crime, though, rather than air pollution.
Not comfortable at all here! We live in an oasis out in the country, surrounded by trees, creeks, ponds, fields, and marshes. We can’t see a single other house from our property, and our driveway is long enough that nobody comes down it unless they’re supposed to. I don’t hear any cars, although I will hear the odd tractor. The biggest noise “pollution” in my homestead is the birds.
My friend just moved adjacent to a 50mph road. The house rocks when a big truck goes by. It is noisy. You get used to it.
Before we moved her stuff in, we did a deep cleaning of the whole house. The windows, sills, and screens on the side adjacent to that road – with a tall cinder block wall between – were so filthy from the crap that comes from the road. Dust, dirt, tire wear.
Unless you follow the issue fairly closely or work in that field, most people aren’t going to be aware of the specific health implications.
Generally most of us don’t want to live right next to a highway anyway because of the noise. But sometimes that’s the only affordable option in the area.
I live on one of the busiest roads in my city and I couldn’t care less about the air quality. I care about Joe Schmoe in his v6 mustang doing Mach Jesus down the road because he’s got small man syndrome at midnight for no reason.
I lived in an apartment overlooking a highway for about 4 years and never really thought about the pollution. THe noise was bothersome at first, but eventually it just became white noise like the ocean or something
I grew up on a two lane state highway. The cars were basically white noise and there weren’t any noticeable air quality issues.
The more annoying thing was the railroad switching yard about a mile away. That could occasionally shake the windows when trains were being coupled together.
I am used to it and don’t think about pollution.
I’ve lived on a highways and next to railroads my whole life. The dust is more an issue than anything else.
It has been a major consideration in purchasing my home. It’s not the noise. I grew up on a busy street and honestly love hearing the cars go by and seeing the headlights move along my wall at night. I do not want the pollution for my kids or the food I grow.
The average American doesn’t think or care about air pollution, let alone associate it with living near a highway.
I wouldn’t live there because of the noise pollution… air doesn’t even enter the mix.
Most people don’t seem aware of the problem. My wife read about it, we lived one street from a freeway, and within a month we had bought a house on the other side of town. My daughter was almost three when we moved, while we lived near the freeway she had to go to the hospital three times for breathing related problems. Since we’ve moved she hasn’t been back. I understand correlation is not causation, but I don’t think I could live near a freeway again
The noise…it’s constant especially if there are a lot of trucks. Not a desirable location.
On behalf of American RHOBH viewers, I am compelled to say it’s better to live on a main road than in a house that’s in pre-foreclosure
While the sound is soothing, the thought of inhaling carbon monoxide isn’t.
Never met someone that gave a shit about air quality in America unless it’s exceptionally bad, as another user mentioned.
First, it is not mainly for transportational convenience, it’s because all the good land is taken by single family houses that are are nightmare to rezone and develop.
Second, I lived on a city street with surface metro, and it was way worse in terms of noise than being near a highway.
Although not in my area when I looking for my house there was a train crash with a chemical spill and then shortly after a truck on a highway also had a spill. So I didn’t want a house very close to a highway or train tracks
I live in a single family on main st (literally). Behind the houses on the opposite side of the street there’s railroad tracks too. It doesn’t bother me at all. I live in a relatively small New England town (under 20k people). The noise and air quality aren’t an issue for me. If there is any issue, it’s the dudes on their super loud motorcycles, but you don’t just get that on main st.
Air doesn’t change enough within a local vicinity for that to matter. It’s incredibly loud though and I do not like living near busy roads for that reason
Noise and light pollution are bigger factors than air pollution for the majority of the country
This is partially our zoning. In many places, most or all of the land zoned for apartments and large developments is on highways & main roads. This is both to minimize transportation impacts, as well as for racist and classist reasons (just go to any community input meeting about an apartment building in a low-to-mid-density area and the isms will be out in spades).
I saw two houses that I thought were lovely that I completely ruled out because it was too close to the highway. For one it was literally adjacent to their backyard.
I moved away from the highway and cities directly due to the air pollution. Unfortunately, I’ll be moving towards the city due to transport convenience
Air pollution doesn’t stay that concentrated next to the highway. If you’re a few blocks away, the air pollution is going to be almost identical.
Also we primarily use gasoline engines, so particulates aren’t as big an issue as countries that primarily use diesel.
The issue is the noise. If it make the housing more affordable people will buy it.
Your submission has been automatically removed due to exceeding the text limit in your post’s textbox. Please shorten it to fewer than 500 characters (not words), including spaces and links, to comply with rule #2. Afterwards, contact us via modmail, and we’ll restore it.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
More of a noise issue
Noisey
I’m concerned about it, but I think the average person isn’t. I can tell you I personally wouldn’t do it.
As someone who has lived both by the train try and the highway at different points in time. I’ve never had any issues with either unless there were emergency vehicles on the highway. Never noticed any difference noise or otherwise.
Air quality is not significantly different near the highway than some distance away. Air circulates. I’m more concerned with noise and the dangers that cars introduce for my children.
I don’t think about it at all.
> I was wondering how important air quality is for the average person. As in, is it generally acceptable to live right next to a highway or main road which has a high degree of traffic and thus air pollution in the form of particulate matter
I’ve lived and traveled all over. Even being a half mile or less from an interstate, air quality is just not an issue.
It becomes really apparent how good our air quality is if you go to say, Mexico City. You literally see a thin blanket of smog over the city when you fly in, and it’s really apparent at times walking by major roads.
I wonder if it’s related to /u/SaintsFanPA comment about diesel vehicles, which I believe are far more prevalent down there.
I live a block and a half from a busy interstate and I can see it out my back window. Honestly, I rarely think about it. The sirens of emergency vehicles happens occasionally, but other than that, it’s just convenient for driving. The noise isn’t enough of a bother to be a big negative. I do live in a low population state with pretty clean air, so that’s probably a lot of it.
When I say busy interstate – think more of a mid-sized city rush hour rather than gridlocked traffic of the really big cities.
I live a couple of blocks away from a major Interstate, and just to be on the safe side I have an air filter that runs 24/7.
You get used to it
It was a big deal back when there was leaded gasoline and cars didn’t have pollution controls. Noise is inverse square law. You don’t have to get very far from a major highway before the road noise is negligible.
I already live in a major city so the highway’s pollution honestly isn’t an added concern to me. Like I genuinely have never really thought about it. The noise also doesn’t bother me.
I wouldn’t want to live on a busy main street because I feel it would be stressful to back out into traffic lol I wouldn’t even think about pollution.
With regards to living near a highway, I would just consider that convenient.
If you can’t afford a detached house, you’re going to take what you can get, even if it’s by a highway.
I live in a medium size city and you can actually see my house from the interstate, at least in the winter, but we don’t face the interstate so all I see out my windows is trees the houses on the other side of a little valley divided by a road and deer grazing in the morning. On the opposite side of the interstate is a 2,000 acre Victorian park so there’s plenty of nature and we’re outside the 300 ft pollution zone, but we probably won’t live here more than a few years because as lovely as it is I do worry about cancer and heart problems from being so close to the highway.
Homes are often pretty well sealed these days.
So this particular concern is somewhat a question of how much time you spend outside on your property + how often you’ve got the windows open.
I’ve lived on a main road before and had an indoor PM 2.5 monitor, and my indoor readings weren’t significantly above normal for the region when the windows were closed. And once I bought a modest air purifier they were basically just 0 all the time unless I was actively cooking or just had been.
On the other hand, if I put it outside or had the windows open, then I’d see significant spikes at busier times of the day.
Nobody cares
We have emissions inspections in my state, hybrids and and EVs are on the rise, and diesel is down… There is virtually no risk to particulate air pollution living near highways in the US.
I guarantee I’ll be more miserable when there’s pollen in the air than when there’s traffic on the highway.
The real issue with highway proximity is noise pollution.
I remember walking on rural roads around my home in the 1970’s and when a vehicle would pass by the fumes were terrible…For a short while I felt like a flower that was wilting. Heard a jigger say something similar so knew that it wasn’t just me. This was back when lead was added to gasoline. But now the cars going by doesn’t bother me. And with catalytic converters on vehicles it’s even better. I am thinking that the traffic noises would be worse than the traffic unless a lot of diesel engine vehicles were using those streets
The pollution emitted by cars these days is a small fraction of what it was 50 years ago. Emission standards, catalytic converters, and elimination of lead from gasoline have hugely improved air quality near cars.
For me, noise is more of an issue. I live about 400 yards from a highway, and the noise, while not that loud, is annoying.
I live about 40ft from a highway interchange of two major US highways. I’ve never once thought about the air pollution. I see others have mentioned noise pollution and that’s something I’ve thought about but I mostly find the sound of the highway to be relaxing if I notice at all.
Well, it causes COPD and asthma. I once was a GIS technician and data analysis for the state health department working on a CDC funded project relating to air pollution. Turns out you have just as much trouble in rural areas with natural pollutants as you do from transportation pollution such as tire particles and exhaust emissions. Turns out that all the variety of trees, grasses, and horticulture (e.g. pollen) are just as much a source of respiratory disease. There is an abundance of data to back it up. Health-wise, you are actually better off downtown living in a concrete jungle. The high spike in chronic respiratory disease is in your well kept suburban areas, or where many of the families live with small children. As a GIS technician, I can tell you that the data jumps off the page. The legislators have this information. Takeaway, COPD/asthma is a big deal all across the USA and most all your state health departments are spending big bucks trying to sort it out.
I live near a freeway, but the prevailing ocean winds blow to the other side. We have merv13s on our hvac, and I monitor our indoor air with a couple different brands of monitor and keep an eye on the outdoor air with the local purple air network. It’s not bad; most of the time it’s really good. The other side of the road may not be as good. Waaaaaaay worse are the wildfire days. They were the reason we now have the beefed up filtration.
Even so, my kid has RAD (airway disease). May eventually turn into asthma diagnosis 🙁 Or she may outgrow it. I do wonder if that contributed. But I’ve been super careful about monitoring since she was born, and it’s never been bad or when it was we stayed inside with the merv fan running and good indoor readings. Also, her aunt had the same diagnosis as a kid, so it’s hard to tease out cause. No other kids around us have lung issues.
So, I think about it a lot, but my monitoring says it’s not a big deal. However, I wonder if there’s still some reason for worry, but we aren’t selling our house and moving for a lot of reasons. It’s not a hot topic of discussion among neighbors.
Noise would be the main issue. Most places don’t have issues with air pollution unless you’re in a big city.
It’s less air pollution and more noise pollution. That’s why people live in single family homes. It’s a lot quieter than living in a busy town center or near a busy street.
I was looking for a new place to live not long ago. There were some nice condos just a few yards from a freeway, but screened by tall bushes.
I ruled them right out, on both noise and pollution grounds. I found a place about a mile away, and feel much better about it.
Personally, I’d take air pollution over noise pollution, but it’s kinda hard at the same time since the place I live has good air quality and basically no noise at night.
We don’t think about it. It’s just part of the air where I live. It’s not like living a little closer to the freeway is going to make all that big of a difference.