When you hear the phrase, “Quiet Zone,” what comes to mind? Is it images of childhood daycare centers enforcing strict afternoon napping policies, or websites featuring relaxing music, or perhaps that is how your mother described your living room while growing up?
After more than three years of petitioning by residents of neighborhoods near railroad crossings, the city of Tempe received approval by the Federal Railroad Administration mid-December to institute a “Quiet Zone” for trains passing through Tempe. All Union Pacific Rail Road trains passing from 1st Street through Price Road will no longer be required to sound their horns at each railroad intersection as normally required by federal law.
The stipulations of the Quiet Zone do allow for trains to sound their horns to alert an emergency, or for safety purposes. However, if they don’t need to, they won’t do so.
As you dive into nostalgia and reminisce about nights of interrupted slumber, or being startled by a passing train while making lemonade, fear not. The impact of the new regulation is not one that will be seen, but heard, or rather, not heard.
There is no questioning the necessity of the regulation.
“Those horns get up to about 120 decibels,” said Karyn Gitlis, a community activist for the Maple Ash neighborhood on Mill Avenue and University Road, in an interview with The State Press. And Robert Yabes, principle city of Tempe planner, said the city had often received complaints about the trains from residents.
The real question isn’t why is this being enforced, but,= when does our convenience become more important than our safety?
According to the Federal Railroad Administration, “In 1994, Congress mandated that the FRA issue a federal regulation requiring the sounding of locomotive horns or whistles at all public highway-rail grade crossings.” They later made changes to allow for the establishment of “Quiet Zones.”
Should merely living in close proximity to a highway-rail grade crossing even give residents the right to complain about the noise? Certainly, if train-car collisions were at a higher rate they’d be singing a different tune.
Or, we could take this as a sign of the times. The number of trains passing through Tempe varies on a daily basis with the ebb and flow of the economy. In general, trains aren’t nearly as pervasive as they once were within transportation, distribution and just everyday American life.
At the turn of the century, the train was considered to be in the foreground of American innovation, but subsequently became a novelty. Although trains are still widely used, what was once just part of the ambient noise is now a sporadic menace.
Loud noises affect more than just our ears. Home values decrease based on the discomfort of the surrounding location and if your home falls within the boundaries of the “Quiet Zone,” you can rest easy knowing that these noises will at the very least, be reduced.
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