I’m jealous that you don’t hear any road noise inside buildings, @BurgerKing!
In our apartment building I constantly hear road noise – especially farting scooters but also beeping trucks and buses (blinker beeps, backup beeps, etc. – trucks often even leave blinkers on when stopped at curb, emitting incessant loud beeps until the drivers finish their rest stop/delivery/etc.) and loud accelerating cars. (And of course sirens and horns too. And construction.) And that’s with all windows fully closed. I can’t hardly bear opening windows due to increase in noise level.
Yes, I could move to quieter location in or out of Taiwan. And/or spend $$$$$$ to redo all the windows. The point is the noise reaches unhealthy levels and impacts millions of people on daily basis. Even those who don’t notice or think it’s not a problem may be harmed physically and/or mentally by the noise, without being conscious of the fact. I’m for freedom so long as one person’s freedom to do as one wishes does not enable behavior that harms other people. Those on/in noisy vehicles should not be free to assault others with excessive noise. And there are objective measures of noise and standards regarding which level is reasonable, safe, harmful, etc.
My hope is that all citizens recognize that noise is harmful and is in fact pollution, noise can be reduced (and yes, without banning all vehicles). Just as air pollution in the past was viewed as simply a fact of life and now increasingly gets treated not as a given but as a problem to solve, so should noise pollution.