silent cities

a few weeks after i moved into my flat in this big city, i woke up very early in the morning. something was different, it felt strange. neither good, nor bad, just strange. it took me a while until i realized: it had been snowing. a thin white layer spread accross the streets, trees, cars, buildings. and the cars had to slow down and the snow silenced their movement even more. it was really quiet for a short time, until the snow had melted half an hour later.

today i went to a brilliant talk by adrian van hooydonk, chief designer of bmw. one of the things he spoke about was how the fact that a hybrid car produces no sound will affect the design of the car:
speed and acceleration (=power) cannot be expressed by the sound of the engine anymore and therefore have to be communicated via the design. (at the same time the design has to express that this car is part of a new era, an era which is maybe not so much about speed anymore but more about mobility/flexibility).
two side-effects of a silent engine are:
sitting inside you cannot hear whether your car is actually running. instead you will hear a lot of other noises, maybe uncomfortable noises, that used to be drowned by the sound of the engine.
and people on the street will no longer notice a car approaching them from behind or the side, which might be dangerous.
sound designers are therefore working on sounds to simulate what we are used to now and will no longer have. and it might even be possible that you can download those sounds from the web and make your own car-sound-mix.

the idea of a more silent city thanks to silent cars is totally exciting to me. just imagine what effect it will have on the real estate market. living next to a huge junction or even a motorway will no longer be a problem. and it will change our mode or perception and alertness when moving through traffic. and what are all the sounds, maybe uncomfortable sounds, on the streets we will suddenly be able to hear instead?
i am sure it will have many more effects that i cannot even imagine right now.