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Comment by ultrarunner | Hacker News Reader

It’s a poignant phenomenon that so many airfields used to exist. People now complain endlessly to get long-established fields shut down *, but red tape keeps any new ones from opening.

* It is important to note that usually, something like 98% of noise complaints come from 1-2 individuals, even in areas with thousands of residents.

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> It is important to note that usually, something like 98% of noise complaints come from 1-2 individuals, even in areas with thousands of residents.

Research paper for anyone interested: https://www.mercatus.org/research/policy-briefs/airport-nois...

And when there's any talk about airport capacity expansion, newspapers and anti-development organizations trot out statistics about thousands of complaints per year from residents, and then the conversation shifts from expansion to reduction. sigh

I mean I kind of get that. If I bought land/house away from stuff, and suddenly they want to place an airfield right next to me, I'd fight it as well. Moving to where an airfield already is and then try to close it is mischievous behaviour though, and obviously not very kind.

> 98% of noise complaints come from 1-2 individuals, even in areas with thousands of residents.

I think you can replace "noise" with "X" and it still applies to almost everything. People generally just adapt and is fine with pretty much anything not directly impacting your life, in many places.

Most/all airfields predate the purchase of a home. The noise complaints come from people who came long after the airfield was established.

This is true, but the problem has become more concentrated with the advent of RNAV. Depending on wind direction and which runway Logan was operating, I had flights departing directly over my place in both JP and later Somerville every 60-90 seconds. The precision with which they do this is incredible, and also kind of annoying.

Spreading out the traffic would do wonders. Having witnessed this firsthand, it's not super surprising that complaints are concentrated when the noise is too.

I had in mind airfields & strips more than commercial aviation hubs, but regardless: more options would somewhat relieve extremely busy SIDs and STARs. Alas, in densely populated areas that ship has probably already sailed.

Yeah, I kind of get it too. But at some point, this country was able to get it done, and that has been largely lost. I'd also say that on average, small aircraft are a lot quieter than they were when these fields were being built.

> I think you can replace "noise" with "X"

I suspect that complaints have become a sort of catharsis for people who otherwise don't feel a great deal of control over their circumstances. Also sort of understandable, but ultimately ineffective for increased quality of life. Poignant.

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