C’is a result that is not about to improve the image of the City of Light. As highlighted by a study conducted by the financial product comparison site Money and relayed by L’Express, Paris is none other than the noisiest city in Europe, ahead of London and Rome, which complete the podium. To develop this classification, analysts took into account several elements, such as population density, levels of road and air traffic, but also noise pollution.
According to the results, the French capital is the city with the highest rate in terms of road noise (with more than 5.5 million people exposed), rail noise (842,500 people exposed) and remains in the lead in terms of noise of crowds in bars and restaurants. Paris is also the city in Europe with the highest level of road congestion (39%), which means that a journey made during rush hour will take 39% longer than it would under normal conditions. .
READ ALSOBesson – My last Parisian taxi
The good students: Oslo, Hanover and Düsseldorf
Paris did not win the prize in all the sectors analyzed, however. Being the most densely populated city in the ranking, London is the noisiest city for the inhabitants but also for air transport. Barcelona tops the criteria for noise pollution. “Barcelona’s old medieval quarters can be the loudest, with sound echoes bouncing through the narrow streets,” the study describes.
READ ALSOParis as you’ve never seen it
Among the 23 European cities analyzed and rated with a score ranging from 0 to 10, Paris therefore obtains a “bad” score of 8.4 / 10 for the assessment of the noise level. At the bottom of the ranking, the cities of Oslo (Norway), Hanover and Düsseldorf (Germany) are the best students with respective scores of 2.28 / 10, 2.09 / 10 and 2.03 / 10.