Although on-campus housing in Madison has strong student appeal because of its central location, residing in noisy downtown may be a health hazard, according to recent findings.
Recently, an Italian court ruled that continuous exposure to high levels of noise can result in psychological damage. This finding is pertinent to the University of Wisconsin, as the large percentage of students living in the State Street area downtown may be suffering from a diminished quality of life because of noise.
“Noise violations in the central district of Madison are a definite mental health issue for both students and other people living in the area,” Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Larry Kamholz said.
Kamholz said residents living in the downtown area of State and Langdon Streets report many more noise complaints than people living off campus.
The penalty for noise violations is $100 for disturbing the peace and $100 for disturbingly loud music.
“Whether or not citations are actually issued is a discretionary matter, but there are more late-night disturbances in the downtown area because it is grossly populated,” Kamholz said.
Some students living off campus, though, say noise problems are just as frequent in off-campus living areas as on State Street. “Off-campus apartments and houses get just as noisy [as State Street] with traffic and noisy neighbors. It really just depends on who you live by, not where you live,” UW junior Amy Duarte said.
Other students agree.
“I think most people are more disturbed by noisy neighbors than by city noises. And loud people certainly do not just live around State Street,” UW graduate student Dietmar Gunther said.
Despite the findings that noise may be linked to mental health problems, some UW students say this is a non-issue.
“People live where they live because of the costs and preferred social atmosphere. Students are busy, and if noise starts to bother them, they can just go to the library,” UW junior Bob Miller said.
Some students who live on State Street say it’s not noisier than off-campus areas because there is no traffic on State Street.
“Madison is not a typical metropolis as there are no cars on State Street. Thus, it only gets noisy during big events, which I don’t think is a problem for most students,” UW junior Mike Gordon said.
Some students, however, say they believe that noise can cause mental harm because they say downtown living can be a noisy problem.
“It can be hard to sleep sometimes with all of the noise, and that can really stress a person out. It can affect your mood greatly,” UW junior Abby Jablow said.
