Highway sound barriers mainly serve as political solutions

Evidence

Even the professionally installed highway barriers are not very effective unless you are very near to them (within a distance comparable to their height). They are installed mainly as a political solution to noise complaints. — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1691

Adding landscape berms, barriers, and large plantings to your yard to reduce highway or road noise actually accomplishes very little. Even the professionally installed highway barriers are not very effective unless you are very near to them (within a distance comparable to their height). They are installed mainly as a political solution to noise complaints. — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1691

Categorization

• SEED: Could anchor an essay on engineered solutions that symbolically address problems without solving them.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1691
• XREF: connects to: Base noise protests are driven by what the noise symbolizes; Road-construction politicians profited by trading approval votes for advance route knowledge — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 912

Broader Connections

• Base noise protests are driven by what the noise symbolizes #expands (0.60)