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Simplifying complexity

One key to a thriving community is a well informed & engaged citizenry.  These reports: 
​1) Simplify complex arguments about policy so that we can make better decisions, or 
​
2) Highlight citizens taking action on their own to drive change on community concerns

What?? Indonesia Schools America on Aircraft Noise

4/5/2020

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It's hard to believe, but it's true. Indonesia, a country with less than 1/10th the per capita income of the United States, mandates significantly greater protection for its citizens against aircraft noise than does the United States. They even call out extra protections for school children that the US doesn't come close to matching.  

Just 3 minutes long. Watch, and be amazed.

​PDF here.
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MSP aircraft noise increases 30% over last 2 years

6/8/2017

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Aircraft noise from the Twin Cities' MSP International Airport increased 30% from 2014 to 2016, according to analysis of airport authority data. The hardest hit community is St. Louis Park, where the number of people significantly impacted by aircraft noise increased 177% in that timeframe.

This information comes to light at the Federal Aviation Administration is thought to be preparing its return to MSP, in order to again attempt to deploy its NextGen flight departure technology. Here we provide evidence of how the FAA uses NextGen to  "hide" harmful levels of noise over new populations with the help of bogus standards, unreleased data, and the willful avoidance of "unhelpful" analyses. We believe the FAA will follow the same game plan here in the Twin Cities, and we aim to prevent that. 

In this report we call for a clear, reasonable target for the reduction in aircraft noise based on a relevant benchmark. We call on the airport authority to provide greater transparency on this issue by regularly releasing data that they already produce, but do not disseminate. Finally, we call upon Governor Dayton to step up his game on the issue of environmental protection and noise pollution.

​10 minutes, updated June 13th, 2017


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The Real Impact of Aircraft Noise, Part 3: The Details of Deception

10/24/2016

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This update to the Real Impact series provides the first black and white proof of how the FAA's NextGen program has increased the significant impact of aircraft noise by 80% in New York City since 2010.

Specifically, I use FAA data and the Port Authority's 2016 Part 150 study to build a Noise Exposure Map that shows the extent and location of the changes, which result in more than 1.2 million people being impacted by harmful levels of aircraft noise, up from  ~690,000 in 2010.

This increase is directly counter to the FAA's narrative that NextGen is reducing the impact of noise. Furthermore, the FAA already generates data that demonstrates how it deceives Congress and citizens, but it fails to share that data. 
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The Real Impact of Aircraft Noise, Part 1

10/1/2015

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Third in a series of reports about the Federal Aviation Administration and its flawed approach to managing aircraft noise across the country.

The  presentation provides the first national pespective on the real impact of harmful levels of aircraft noise across the country by  leveraging the FAA's own data that I acquired via a Freedom of Information Act request. That data was then compiled, analyzed and mapped in cooperation with the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.

Once the data was processed, we applied the internationally accepted definition for the threshold of harmful and annoying levels of aircraft noise to it. The result is shocking - instead of the 340,000 people the FAA reports as being significantly impacted by aircraft noise, we show that figure to be 20 times higher - or almost 8 million people.

Furthermore, we show how as part of implementing its NextGen program, the  FAA has been systematically "hiding" noise by placing many more flights over residential areas that never before had aircraft traffic. Yet since even 150 low level departures a day does not meet the FAA's outdated standard for harmful or annoying noise, it can simply put a Highway in the Sky over your house with no discussion or compensation.

You can also view an interactive map of the results, which show aircraft noise levels beyond 55 dB DNL at the census block level at more than 30 major airports in the US.

With support from the MSP FairSkies Coalition and the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.

17 minutes
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The FAA's outdated, insufficient and incomplete approach to measuring aircraft noise

5/18/2013

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A primer on how aircraft noise is measured and evaluated in the US versus how it is done across the world.  The quick take is that the standards used by the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate noise are 40 years old, and there is plenty of information to show how we should update that approach. That includes:
  • lowering the threshold for the significant impact of aircraft noise to 55 dB DNL
  • consider using the alternative logarithmic metric known as CNEL (as is done in California and across Europe)
  • making regular use of single event metrics like Nx, which are much easier to understand, and much more relevant to how people actually experience noise
​14 minutes
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