I live rurally near a busy trunk road. I can walk about 1/2 mile away and the road is still in my line of sight, and it is still 'loud' (as in irritating). However, I'm blighted by this road as I'm so close to its proximity. And it disturbs me. However, I did notice when visiting a busy part of town recently that it was a complete aural assualt, and as such, you might hear/perceive less under the cacaphony of much.

I can hear drones that fly over, but it's not a horrible noise. Much car noise these days seems to come from friction on the road as engines have gotten much quieter. So with that in mind, perhaps in all they'd be quieter, but I can't see an easy way to environmentally muffle the sound, could you invert the sound?