Soundscapes

F Streetcar turning onto Market Street

The historic F streetcar runs from Fisherman’s Wharf to Castro and Market, where it makes a U-turn and returns back down Market Street again. The bell rings, the metal wheels screech, and you can hear nearby traffic driving by in the rain.

 

Castro & Market during COVID-19 pandemic

In March 2020, with most city dwellers “sheltering-in-place,” the streets of San Francisco saw fewer cars and got much quieter. Here’s the exact same spot where the F streetcar makes the turn. You’ll hear only a few cars driving by when the light changes.

 

Cheering for healthcare workers in Upper Market, San Francisco

During the COVID-19 pandemic, San Franciscans in the Upper Market area cheer at 8 p.m. every night in a show of solidarity and support with healthcare workers.

 

Coyote howling in San Francisco

Sometimes you can hear coyotes howling in the hills late at night in the city. This coyote was possibly in the hills above the Randall Museum or in Buena Vista Park.

 

Muni metro – older

The San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority (SFMTA) is in the process of replacing all the older light-rail Muni cars with newer ones. This audio clip captures what the older cars sound like in the tunnel. When the PA system comes on, the decibel level goes up to about 90 dB.

Muni metro – new

For comparison, listen to one of the new Muni cars in the tunnel. They’re definitely quieter, even when the PA system comes on — from about 75 dB to 84 dB.

 

22 Fillmore bus

San Francisco has always used a network of electric buses and now hybrid buses. This is one of the newer ones and it’s pretty smooth and quiet.

 

BART

For your listening pleasure, we present 10 seconds of shrieking BART noise. You’re welcome.

 

Church at Market (street)

Waiting on an outdoor Muni platform at the busy corner of Church near Market Street. Just the sounds of four lanes of traffic whooshing by.

 

Market Street siren

If you spend more than a few minutes walking on Market Street, you’ll probably hear one of these. Much louder than their European counterparts, these sirens also add an occasional “whoop whoop!” for emphasis. By the way, New York City plans to implement a less-stressful emergency responder siren. Let’s hope San Francisco does this, too!

Inside the Ferry Building

On a busy Saturday afternoon, the Ferry Building on San Francisco’s Embarcadero is full of visitors — people who come to browse, eat, or shop at the Farmer’s Market, which is behind the building. The decibel level ranges from about 79-87 dB.

 

Birds of the Embarcadero

A massive flock of noisy birds (possibly wild parrots) were captured on audio as they flew back and forth through some tall trees with thin branches near The Embarcadero Center.

 

Leaf blower

Just like in the suburbs, some homeowners in San Francisco feel that the best way to clean leaves off the sidewalk is by using a leaf blower to push them to the curb, where the weekly street-cleaning machine might scoop them up. This is no easy feat because it’s often breezy in the city and the leaves continue to move wherever they want. This recording was made one block away from the offending activity and measured at 64 decibels. At a closer distance, the level would be much higher, in the 80+ dB range.

 

Leaf blower 2

This gas-powered leaf blower was much louder and closer to me than the previously recorded leaf blower. This machine was running in the backyard of my rear neighbor. The gardeners were probably 25-30 feet away from my bedroom window and the noise ranged from 76-79 dB in my home.

Street cleaning truck

Once a week, San Francisco’s city streets get “cleaned” by a heavy truck that has brushes on its underside. It’s a huge undertaking, and everyone must move their parked cars out of the way for a couple of hours so that the curbs are clear. Then the meter maids come through and ticket the remaining cars, followed by the cleaning truck. The truck lumbers along and makes motions that resemble actual cleaning. But most notable is the noise, from its beeping to its engines and the spinning brushes.

 

Rug cleaning company

PART ONE:
I heard this horribly loud droning in my apartment and I couldn’t see where it was coming from. I heard it in the back and in the front. Here, I’ve recorded the sound at my front window and I measured the decibels at 62 dB(C). But what was it?

PART TWO:
After an hour of the terrible droning noise, I set out from my apartment to discover the source. A block away, I came to a white van parked on the street with a hose running out its door into a house.  It was a carpet cleaning company! I won’t mention the name because it’s a small family business with a lot of positive customer reviews. However, standing near the van, the noise measured at 115 decibels…who would guess that cleaning a carpet would be worse than a jackhammer?

Powell Street

When tourists visit San Francisco for the first time, they usually want to ride a cable car. One of the cable car lines turns around on Powell Street at Market — near a Muni metro entrance and surrounded by street musicians, trinket sellers, and panhandlers. It’s noisy and chaotic and passengers must wait for the next cable car to arrive and turn around. As you walk further up Powell Street, you’ll see people coming out of shops like H&M or UniQlo. You’ll probably also see a queue of empty cable cars waiting to go to the turnaround at Market Street to pick up a new load of passengers. I tried to capture some of those brake-clutching sounds here, as they inched forward in the queue on the metal tracks.

 

Rockridge BART station

This outdoor train platform in Oakland is situated in the middle of a busy freeway with lanes of vehicles on both sides. Supported by steel bars and separated from the highway by a chain link fence, you can watch the traffic racing by while you wait for your train. I measured the noise level at 85-87 dB.

Sutter and Grant (street)

In downtown San Francisco, a few blocks from Union Square and just a couple of blocks from the gates to Chinatown. You can hear car and bus traffic, pedestrians, and a sax player in the distance.

 

Seals at Pier 39

Tourists stand and watch the seals call to each other at Pier 39 in San Francisco.

 

Valencia Street restaurant

This popular little tapas restaurant clocked in at over 90 decibels. Definitely no absorption on the ceilings or walls, tables really close together, loud music playing, and people had to raise their voices to be heard. The ambient conversation was coming from the table next to us. This spot was a perfect candidate to add to SoundPrint (a place to avoid if you want a quiet conversation).

Madrid residential street after midnight

Madrid has a lively nightlife, with plenty of bars and tapas restaurants open until the wee hours. A lot of people are out on the streets, adding to the city’s vibrancy. This also means you need a pair of earplugs if you want to go to sleep before they do. This recording was made from the 4th floor balcony of an apartment after midnight, approximately 70 decibels. The street was in the Centro area, and barely wide enough to fit a car through it, flanked on both sides by tall buildings (5 to 6 stories high), creating a noise corridor.

 

The same Madrid street at 5 a.m.

This is the same Madrid street a few hours later. The bars are closed, but some hooligans are still hanging out below on the streets, yelling, throwing bottles, and causing a ruckus. The only cars on the street are taxis, and they have to squeeze past the drunken crowd. Apparently the neighbors are accustomed to this — there was no police intervention.

 

Riding the Madrid metro

Like any train, it gets noisy inside with the sound of the rails, the screeching as the train makes gradual turns, and the announcements. This ride measured between 85 to 95 decibels, C-weighted, yet seemed much quieter than BART in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

Madrid metro pulling into a station

This is the sound of the Madrid metro entering a station and stopping. Periodically, it makes a very loud compression sound, which I was unable to capture. That extra-loud noise seems to happen randomly, apparently only when I have my recorder put away.

 

A park in Embajadores

In a local, non-touristic park in the Embajadores neighborhood, people nearby were sitting on the grass and chatting, napping, relaxing, playing guitar, and singing.

Lisbon, Portugal – food vendor

I loved listening to this woman as she called out to passers-by to come and buy food from her.

 

Copenhagen transit

The sound of a commuter activating a transit card in the Copenhagen metro station.

 

A street in Istanbul

A small street, but a busy one in the Fatih garment district of Istanbul.

 

Vienna, Austria U-Bahn

The sound of announcements on the U2 line of the Vienna U-Bahn.

 

Vienna – the creaky floor in the Kunsthistoriches Museum

The floor in parts of the old Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna have a remarkably crunchy, crispy sound. Here you can hear footsteps on the creaky floor, and ambient conversation as people pass through.