Home

Kids and Car Alarms

The Noise Problem

What happens when children grow up surrounded by car alarms? The answer, from thirty years of psychological research, is alarming: children exposed to such noise can suffer serious learning disabilities. Consider a few classic studies:
  • At an elementary school next to elevated train tracks in Inwood, the average reading level of sixth graders on the noisy side of the school was a full year behind the students on the quiet side. Later, after acoustic engineers muffled the train noise, reading scores on the noisy side improved. (Bronzaft & McCarthy, "The effects of elevated train noise on reading ability," Environment and Behavior 1975, 7, 517-527)

  • Another study examined the high-rise apartment buildings strattling the George Washington Bridge and measured the noise exposure in different apartments. Carefully controlling for differences in social class and air quality, researchers found that children living on lower, noisier floors did not read as well as those on the quieter, upper floors. Apparently, traffic noise had made the children inattentive to acoustical cues, hindering their ability to pay attention in class. (Cohen et al., "Apartment noise, auditory discrimination, and reading ability in children," Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 9, 407-422)

  • Even low-level, everyday traffic noise increases blood pressure, heart rates and stress hormones among fourth-graders. Children who are exposed to traffic noise also become less motivated, presumably from the sense of helplessness that can develop from noise they can't control. (Evans et al., "Community noise exposure and stress in children," Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2001; 109 (3))

    • The Car Alarm Problem

    Car alarms are not stationary sources of noise, so it's hard to study their effects directly. (Train tracks and highways make it easy to compare the affected area with a quiet control group -- not so with alarmed cars, which can park anywhere.) But there's good reason to think alarm noise is especially harmful.

    First, car alarm sirens are particulary intense, hitting 120 dBA at their source. Along with emergency vehicles, alarms are the loudest noise on our streets.

    Second, siren noise has a "sharp wave-front". This means that the sound begins completely without warning, and jolts you with a physical shock. These noises are extremely stress-inducing.

    Finally, alarms are designed to be hard to "tune out". They rotate through six different sirens, making them impossible to ignore. Trying to do geometry homework while a car alarm is sounding is a Sisyphean task. Sleeping is even harder. While other sources of noise are similarly harmful to childhood development, car alarms are perhaps the most aggravating.

    The Solution

    For all of these reasons, we're starting a group of Parents Against Car Alarms. As you'll learn elsewhere on this site, car alarms are nearly useless in preventing car theft, and they're easy to disable. Quiet, inexpensive alternatives exist that really protect cars. There's simply no need to put up with car alarm noise any longer.

    To Get Involved: