With all the recent focus on air pollution from diesels killing people prematurely surely the values of houses alongside busy roads is going to suffer as it dawns on people that it could knock years of their and families lives living in one.
It's going to go full circle in my opinion. A lot of older, more desirable houses were built by the busy roads. Nowadays it's probably one of the most off putting aspects of a house. I reckon in 20 years or so when every car is electric and the pollution levels are much lower (same for the noise pollution) the location will become desirable again.
Noise pollution concerns me even more than the air pollution. Road/air noise being more of an issue than engine noise imo
So on that note I'd never have considered one.
Depends if you mean right next to the road or set back a bit. I was brought up by a busy main road but set back about 10m with a grass verge. My parents are still there after 50 years (both hitting 80 now) and still in good health. That said my dad is a 20 a day man so I don't think exhaust fumes are his issue. If it was right next to the road then noise/vibrations would be more of a bother to me.
It's going to go full circle in my opinion
I think it'll take more than electric cars for that to happen. We'd need to step away from personal transport to shared modes first.
no its one of the first things I look for to avoid actually, noise pollution mainly.
No but only as i don't want my cat to get run over.
Currently working on a school design where the ventilation system has to protect the kids from exhaust and noise pollution, the internal critria is quite strict. The kids are then sent out to play next to the motorway, running around and breathing all those noxious fumes, deeply.
Personally I wouldn't due to noise and access. Access more than anything.
Noise and access concerns rather than air quality.
Air quality might kill me. Noise and poor access will make living a misery.
Noise is more of an issue. Especially as in the uk we seem to be very poor at putting in noise barriers when large roads / dual carriage ways / motorways pass close to house.
Sometimes you have no choice, our house has a train line intersection at the back fairly busy but has great clear skies at night, probably the first time I've lived in the city and and see the stars. The front well 2 streets off an industrial estate. It's a bit grim, why did we buy it?
The house was perfect for our needs except parking, we could afford it, we spoke to the neighbours they seem friendly enough, if we hadn't we would of ended up buying a flat as nothing in the last 12 months has come close.
I avoid busy roads when looking at houses. On the north circular i waited for a bus and the noise of passing traffic was awful, the house fronts were black. No way could i live there, access was poor too. North circ up near southgate, i got lost after the saracens game and ended up there.
If you're worried about air quality, stay away from any dense housing as the NO2 from modern boilers is a big problem.
You're probably more in danger from being hit by the traffic than the particulates and NO2.
Having said that, all being equal I'd live away from a busy road.
no I wouldn't. When sitting in my back garden on a quiet summer's eve I wouldn't want to hear traffic.
What is your definition of main road? Just bought a corner house set back but on a well used 30 particularly busy on school drop off and pickup times. Doesn't bother us. In the day you can't hear anything. When you can hear is if you've woken up at 4am, it's silent and then someone comes past doing considerably more than 30.
Pollution wise it does bother me, but it's kind of tough if you want to live in a city, I can't imagine a few streets back is any real difference
It depends on location I think, and how the road is used. Take into account road use, times, condition, gradient etc too.
We live on a busy road. Not worried about pollution as the traffic flows and it's often windy.
However, the noise is ridiculous because of flat beds and artics using it as a rat run, exacerbated by potholes and speed bumps. The latter vital to stop speeding. The other is is we're on quite a steep hill so the neds and lorries rev hard to get up the hill and accelerate hard as they can between speed bumps...
Add in the speed and aggressiveness of the typical driver it's a reason we're moving.
I've the width of the pavement between my front door and getting mowed down by a Aldi truck and I'm on a set of traffic lights.
I'm used to it and I can't cope with quiet. When I had new A rated Windows fitted they reduced the noise quite dramatically and I couldn't sleep for 2 days 😳
Roads are only going to get busier.
I lived in a house on a busy road as a student. I was in the front bedroom. Never again! It's the noise that's really annoying.
We bought our house on a small town main rd, 30mph, and a good front garden between us and the pavement. The driveway is big with plenty room to drive in, turn and drive out again, and I'm growing a good big mixed hedge after cutting down a 20ft conifer monstrosity.
Quite happy with it and not concerned about any noise as it's not much at all. It's the compromise we made to live 2 minutes walk from one of Scotland's best public schools!
I hate the thought of being distant from people, growing older it'll be good to have neighbours, but I would dearly love to have a semi countryside home with a view into fields/sea.
No. I have done in the past but never again. Apart from the pollution being unhealthy, I can't stand having the smell of exhaust fumes when you open the window, and all over your clothes if you put them to dry outside.
Also I wouldn't like the noise and constant flow of cars outside my home. We moved somewhere quiet and peaceful a few years ago, where we wake up to cockerels and sheep behind the house and hardly any traffic. I love it.
Edit: and I'd worry about the cat on a busy main road.
Never again.
You don't realise the pressures the stress and noise put on you until you leave. At the time we thought we weren't noticing it because we were used to it.
At the time I had no choice - it was a house that went with the job.
Murray - MemberIf you're worried about air quality, stay away from any dense housing as the NO2 from modern boilers is a big problem.
[b]Load of ballcocks.[/b]
The combustion of natural gas releases very small amounts of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, virtually no ash or particulate matter, and lower levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other reactive hydrocarbons.
The main by products of complete combustion of natural gas are, water vapour and carbon dioxide. The same stuff that comes out of you when you're spouting rubbish as a mater of fact.
We live on a busy main road but as above it's the noise pollution that's starting to piss me off.
It was a 30 zone when we moved in but no the whole town is a 20. We live maybe 20 metres from a 90 degree bend but it still doesn't stop people hammering down at 40mph (50 at night sometimes with the boy racers), heavy on the brakes then accelerate again. Absolutely crazy and within 12 months of moving in there was a lassy wedged in a neighbours garden after clearing 2 big kerbs and narrowly missing the paper lad.
Anyway bit off topic/ranty there but noise is a big factor and that's in a bloody 20 zone!
Have just moved from being a pavement away from a 30mph village main road to a very quiet avenue. My sleep quality has improved no end.
Wouldn't move back to being on a main road again.
I lived for a while next to a main road in a small but busy town.
There was a mini roundabout about 50 metres away so traffic was forever braking or accelerating, or queueing.
The noise was horrible, the queuing traffic was the worse. The worst thing by a country mile was the t***s using hands-free phones at full volume that you could hear outside the damn car, especially the ring tone bit. What is the point of that !!
That and endless passing sirens from the police/fire/ambulance stations up the road.
The grime was bad too, when we moved out and cleaned properly the black dust around the inside of the windows (old house/rubbish windows) was appalling.
Never again !
Couldn't do it, don't know how others do, I would be mad within a week.
No way. Noise pollution, air pollution danger of traffic to my young kids.
Would you not get more pollution in a built up area?
I think the amount of traffic flow would expect would be more important than being a main road or not.
The cat would be my first worry.
You can find out the state of NO2 pollution around your home or work using the Friends of the Earth [url= https://www.foe.co.uk/go/clean-air-kit ]Clean Air Kit[/url]. I've got one in the front garden, at the end of a cul-de-sac; there's no passing traffic, but lots of people accelerating away from turning round. It'll be interesting to see what it says...
Also never again. Lived in a small village with meadows out the back in which lived two>>one old bulls, lovely in Summer, but busy main road at front spoiled the whole thing. Old terrace with thin walls. Wooshing from cars was bad enough but bin lorries or trucks carrying aggregates etc would shake the place. So glad to get out.
Also I wouldn't like the noise and constant flow of cars outside my home. We moved somewhere quiet and peaceful a few years ago,
The constant flow of traffic outside is made up of all the people who moved to somewhere quiet and peaceful 🙂
maccruiskeen - Member
The constant flow of traffic outside is made up of all the people who moved to somewhere quiet and peaceful
Could be the words of a folk song... 🙂
But you'll get a lot more house for your money so if you need a big house and want/need to live in a dense area then maybe you make that compromise.
You cant breath and are going slowly going mad but the look at the size of bedroom three!
I live about 4 floors above City Road in London. Admittedly, the noise at times can be distracting. It tends to be more loud motorbikes than supercars, but it's all the same.
We will consider relocating when our contract is up.
I can't imagine a few streets back is any real difference
From this [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39132679 ]BBC article[/url] it can apparently be "strikingly cleaner in a side-street".
I lived next to auchmill road in Aberdeen tbh the noise in the house wasnt an issue. There was a full on accident at my front door and ambulance and fire engine came in with blues and twos ....I only noticed this when i left to go to work
How ever as noted above as soon as i went into my rear garden for some r n r the noise was unbearable and it wasn't constant it was up and down which was even worse. Constant noise like that on a jet plane is ok to a point but the changes in pitch and just general chaos of the noise put me off doing that again.
There is also the aspect of traffic - leaving the house in the a car betweenm and 4pm/6pm forget it
You can find out the state of NO2 pollution around your home or work using the [url= https://www.foe.co.uk/go/clean-air-kit ]Friends of the Earth Clean Air Kit[/url]. I've got one in the front garden, at the end of a cul-de-sac; there's no passing traffic, but lots of people accelerating away from turning round. It'll be interesting to see what it says...
Good shout, just ordered one..
Interesting.
I purchased a house on a 40mph (read 80mph bikes and lambos) dual carriageway. Its set back a little bit.
The noise is an issue. I must admit that. Fumes less so.
The big benefit is that we have moved from a mid terraced with nutter neighbours and forgone the option to have more nutter neighbours with a semi.
So i guess it boils down to if the noise from neighbours will stress you out more than car. Bearing in mind that most people are driving cars when your awake.
The inlaws live on a main road the hardest part is getting in and out of the drive
I grew up on a main (to me) road, it didn't bother me. The Mrs grew up in a cul de sac, so we live in a cul de sac.
It would take a loooooong front garden to get us back on a main road, and TBF main roads by me aren't like main roads in towns, wouldnt' fancy that much, my office is on a main road in Birmingham, so I think a main road like this at home would finish me off.
I reside in a residential area which in the last 10 years has become a Rat Run.
Not the same as constant traffic, but annoying nonetheless.
I live about 200 yards as the crow flies from a national speed limit dual carriageway. The white noise is always there but it's not low enough to bother us. I wouldn't want to live much closer though, and to answer the question, yes it would be a dealbreaker on a house.
Said dual carriageway (but further up, a couple of miles from my house) is undergoing major works and there's a temporary 30mph limit enforced with average speed cameras which will be there for at least 2 years. This was a minor annoyance when I first drove through it, but I remember cycling to a shop next to it and then riding back on the cyclepath that runs alongside it. The comparative silence was shocking. Anyone living near that stretch must find it bliss (though I bet they're all moaning about having to do 30 for a couple of miles).
Only read the OP and none of the other responses, but the simple answer is no. My wife and I were both lucky enough to grow up in some very peaceful countryside with lots of space and fresh air. The closer we can get to that for our kids, the better. Living on a main road? No thanks. It's a shame, because the style of house I like is often on the main roads where I live.
It has, and will continue to be, a deal breaker.
Following others above, no!
(or should I say not again...)
Pollution isn't an issue (at least not that I can tell...) but the noise pXsses me off. Fine during the day, and indeed in the back garden, but when it's otherwise quiet at night and a bus or loud car goes past it disturbs.
The road I live on is quite busy, but the road it joins, about forty-fifty metres away, is a former trunk route to the south coast, the A350, now a B-road, which has fourteen side-roads off of it, along with a number of schools in its catchment area, and is really pretty busy, even at night, when the sound tends to echo off the buildings opposite, so during the summer, if I have my bedroom window open I need earplugs to cut down the noise; being woken at 3am by some noisy truck bouncing over a drain cover really pisses me off!
Given a choice I'd happily live well away from any busy road, which is possible even in a city.