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I vehemently disagree. The major source of noise in my area is people. Not saying my experience extends to every city, but even blaming traffic is a naive generalization.

A “naive generalization”? Use words because they are the right words, not because they make you sound smart. “Vehemently” disagree with something important. I am not worth a word that strong!

I’ve lived around cars every one of my 42 years. They are loud. It’s not a generalization or naive. Side streets are quiet, main roads are loud. I’ve also walked dozens of cities in, again, 42 years. It consistently holds up.

Pedestrianised roads can be fairly noisy, too.

Where do you live and how do you measure that? The literature has many studies finding vehicle noise as the top effect:

NYC: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-...

Hong Kong:

https://doi.org/10.1121%2F1.1494803

Where I am, most of the noise comes from air conditioning and physical plant equipment from neighbouring buildings. Cars aren't that big of an issue.

Buses can be loud, but they're transient.

Yes, and specifically cars intentionally made to be loud. One obnoxious car with a loud muffler can disturb people in their homes many blocks away!