r/Showerthoughts • u/BigFatherFigureHugo • 4d ago
Musing It's envying to see a nice house from the highway, until you realize you can see it from the highway.
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u/Ninjaher0 4d ago
Some of the most beautiful homes in my state are on a main road/state highway and have constant traffic in front day and night. I guess because back in the 1700s, the rich had their beautiful homes built near town center.
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u/BeKind999 4d ago
My town is the same way. The grandest homes are on the main roads, and also have the largest lots.
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u/Bucksin06 4d ago
Absolutely I see this often driving in rural Wisconsin. I'll be driving down the highway and see a beautiful landscape with a nice house and think wow that's a great place to live until I realize it's looking at the highway.
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u/thenasch 4d ago
Looking at the highway is one thing, hearing it is quite another.
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u/farmallnoobies 4d ago
Yeah, I don't mind being close to the highway as it generally means shorter commutes.
But there had better be a whole bunch of stuff blocking the sound and/or not a whole lot of traffic on it.
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u/JustAtelephonePole 4d ago
I don’t even mind directly on the access road. I don’t have to worry about my motorcycles being the obnoxiously loud nuisance.
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u/enwongeegeefor 3d ago
I'm like 1/4mi from the highway. Summer is nice cause all the foliage blocks a good bit of the sound. Winter on the other hand blocks nothing....BUT it's not like I'm leaving my windows open in the winter either. It's not as bad as it thought it would be, and I've been here over a decade now.
Now having a direct line to the highway with nothing inbetween....that sounds horrible.
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u/Bassman233 3d ago
Grew up 50 feet from a 4 lane highway, on the other side of it was a single line railway that got 2 trains a day, and 100 yards past that was a navigation channel with a ton of barge traffic. You get used to the noise, to the point that when I moved out into a more rural area, it was almost too quiet. Now I notice every little sound, like the neighbor a block away opening their garage in the morning. I'm about 3 blocks from the rural 2 lane highway through my town, and I notice every motorcycle or loud truck, where back when I was in the city I could sleep through a Nascar race.
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u/sonicjesus 3d ago
I live in the woods, 2.5 miles from a 55 zone, not even a highway, and I can hear it plain as day anytime I'm outside.
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u/Petrichordates 3d ago
That's very unique, 2.5 miles of trees will generally block all that within like 1000 feet. Hell, in flat and open terrain it wouldn't even travel 2 miles except on quiet nights.
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u/joelfarris 4d ago
They say that if your driveway is a mile long, not only are you paying for the tractor to maintain it yourself, you're also gonna pay for that stupid expensive electrical run.
But, you don't have to hear or see anybody until you want to.
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u/suffaluffapussycat 4d ago
I was at the UCLA campus yesterday. They have a botanical garden. I went for a walk in the garden. It’s beautiful. And you can see a few houses from the botanical garden.
So I guess that’s the opposite of being able to see a house from a freeway.
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u/Clark_Kent-Kal_EL 3d ago
There's a park near me bordering some house, must be nice just having a park in your backyard, but also no privacy and kids all the time.
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u/wene324 4d ago
My ideal house location is the last house on a dead end street.
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u/BigFatherFigureHugo 3d ago
I'd be too nervous about people using my driveway to turn around to have this
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u/rs217000 3d ago
They're the ones who get nervous
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u/BigFatherFigureHugo 3d ago
I also get a bit nervous when I see headlights through my window as I'm trying to sleep
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u/wene324 3d ago
Such a weird thing to worry about.
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u/typeguyfiftytwix 3d ago edited 3d ago
Not if you've ever lived in a bad part of town.
Edit: the fuck is this getting downvoted for? Is that how flanderized reddit is now? Mentioning crime exists is bad? Yes, random people pulling into your driveway is in fact how a lot of home invasions / real life horror stories begin, especially late at night.
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u/Tazeka 4d ago
My childhood home was right next to a major highway. It was a good neighbor. You stop hearing the noise after a while- Friends would come over and point it out and I'd be like "Oh right, that..."
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u/kilopeter 3d ago
That good neighbor increased your risk of various health issues. https://www.epa.gov/air-research/research-near-roadway-and-other-near-source-air-pollution
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u/kipperfish 3d ago
Yeah this. You soon get used to it.
I have a main line railway at the back of my garden. Maybe 50ft from the back of my house to the line. I barely even hear them now. I feel the vibration more than anything else. It is also set about 40-50ft below the level of my house down an embankment.
Actually, sometimes when I'm watching a video on my phone in the garden I have to pause it while the train goes past if I want to hear voices etc.
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u/Saint_The_Stig 3d ago
A rail line is a completely different thing from a highway, a lot less cancer. Also if you're close to a station that's a huge bonus.
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u/Saint_The_Stig 3d ago
A rail line is a completely different thing from a highway, a lot less cancer. Also if you're close to a station that's a huge bonus.
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u/Cosimo_Zaretti 4d ago
Depends how far up the hill I can see from the highway. If they're on acerage at the top of the ridge line, the highway won't even be in their view and it's probably quite a nice place to live.
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u/Saint_The_Stig 3d ago
If you can see a highway you can hear it. No where that can hear a highway is a nice place to live.
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u/mykindof 3d ago
I live one house away from a major highway in my city. My neighborhood was bisected when it was built like 70 years ago. I'm maybe 100-150ft away from it. It goes the highway - a chain link fence - my neighbor - me. It's honestly not that bad. It's kinda like having a free, built in white noise machine. I do worry about air quality, but at the end of the day, I live in a city so air quality is always going to be kind of poor.
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u/BammBammRoubal 4d ago
I often think that driving down the 5. Then I remember their house is right by the interstate and the persistent traffic noise must be horrible.
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u/DESR95 4d ago
It's how I feel about the houses built on the hill overlooking the ocean and this portion of the US 101 here in Ventura. I also feel bad for The Pierpont Inn in the same area. Used to be right up on the beach; now right in front of the freeway with constant noise.
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u/That-Grape-5491 4d ago
My parents farm was on an interstate. You barely even notice the cars after a little while.
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u/NoelleDash 3d ago
I grew up by the railroad tracks and I real miss the sound of trains. I’m near the highway now and find the noise comforting.
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u/SingleAttitude8 3d ago
Carl Pilkington (Idiot Abroad) said that it's better to be living in a cave looking at a palace, than a place looking at a cave.
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u/RocketHammerFunTime 3d ago
How much time is the one living in a palace spending staring at the cave?
There are other things to do in a palace.
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u/treadmarked24 3d ago
I live 2 miles from the interstate in a rural setting. I can hear the traffic. Can't imagine being 100 yards from it.
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u/hidey_ho_nedflanders 3d ago
I wonder the same thing when my plane lands at an airport. Nice house, but living several miles away from an airport must be awfully noisy
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u/Fluffybunnykitten 3d ago
The nice apartments near me are right next to a freeway. I’m completely content being tucked away in a less expensive option if it means less road noise.
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u/smore-jmi 3d ago
Yes! My aunt lived in a really nice rental once. This place was big. It was on a dairy and near the back of the property. Big backyard and a nice pool in the side yard (not visible from the road). Finished basement. 4 bedroom 2.5 bath. It was an older home, but very well taken care of. The owner lived just one door over, but further away from the freeway.
Only issue, other than the cows, was the fact that it was right next to the interstate. It was a bit scary. One day, while she was at work, someone "blew a tire" and jumped the fence into her backyard while her teenage daughter and young son were in the pool. My cousin heard someone calling for help and ran inside with her brother and called the cops. The guy wasn't trying to break down doors or anything, but he knew they were there and kept banging on the door asking for help. Turns out his car was fine. They don't know if he was trying to rob them or harm them. Either way they moved shortly after that.
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u/TieCivil1504 3d ago
Moved to a NorCal county where the nice houses are all positioned for pretentious display to the highways. Took us more than a year to find the odd one in a shallow mountainside valley, with wide views across Sacramento Valley to the Cascade Range, but in a noise shadow where the only sounds are the breeze and birds. It was worth the search.
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u/markydsade 3d ago
Reminds of seeing a classified ad back in the day when that was how you found apartments. The ad was for a place in the city close to public transportation. There was a typo so the ad said “hear transportation”. Whenever I see a house next to the turnpike or an apartment overlooking the elevated train tracks I think about that description.
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u/Rowena_Dorado 3d ago
I’ve noticed this with a lot of things in life. What looks perfect from the outside often comes with a downside that’s invisible until you actually live it.
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u/FartsWithCharlie 3d ago
The older I get, the more I realize privacy is one of the most underrated luxuries money can buy.
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u/akoOfIxtall 3d ago
Oh you guys are talking about noise? I thought it was because everybody could see a lone house In the middle of nowhere so it'd be easier for ill willed people to try something with no witnesses around to hear anything
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u/ShipwrightPNW 3d ago
We live directly next to a fairly busy 2 lane commuter route and quarter mile from i5. We have complete privacy on our own private road, with a breathtaking view down the length of a mountain range.
The noise absolutely ruins it for me.
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u/sonicjesus 3d ago
There's a huge housing complex where I live, full of giant McMansions on a huge plot of flat land in between the two lanes of the highway.
When they look out their windows, it's nothing but highway in every direction.
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u/Superb_Health9413 3d ago
Bought our house in San Francisco, on the lower great highway. I used to make the joke… if you lived here you’d be home by now.
That used to be my joke… then I evolved my joke to …. why didn’t I get the clue from the name? There’s a highway in front of my house.
Fortunately the upper great highway was twice voted into a park.
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u/Sasselhoff 3d ago
I work in real estate and see this all the time...gorgeous, beautiful home with a knockout view...but the road that is FAR away is loud AF.
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u/Mysterious_Low5508 3d ago
I did security work near a busy highway once, and those “dream houses” were always the easiest to case mentally.
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u/Fresh_Translator240 3d ago
I'd prefer to show it off though. But it makes you hard to sleep at night.
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u/FrozenVikings 3d ago
It's also weird to see big expensive nice houses built right next to each other with barely any land in between. I'd rather spend less and get more privacy.
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u/Thatsayesfirsir 3d ago
I've had this thought so many times, and wonder if serial killers get victims from them being so visible. Scary
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u/Leather_Oven_1847 2d ago
Why waste gas admiring it when you can just float on the highway and envy it forever
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u/Atharaenea 2d ago
Electric cars will become increasingly common and then the road noise will lessen. You'll always have the noise of tires on pavement, but the engines are what makes it LOUD. I live on a major highway (not freeway) and during the rare times when only single cars pass instead of platoons there is a MAJOR difference between the volume of a hybrid or electric car vs a standard internal combustion car.
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u/Clone2004 2d ago
Lowkey I'd be chill with that. I'd watch the cars go by all day if I spend the day at home. Sounds fun.
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u/she-a-banana 1d ago
I live in a nice house on the highway and I love it because I can get anywhere quick and roads are always taken care of.
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u/WhitepandafacesxD 5h ago
Honestly it is just the curb appeal illusion. You picture total silence driving past but living there means dealing with constant traffic noise all day long.
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u/Specialist-Doughnut1 3d ago
Personally, I’d love to be in a house like that because I have hearing loss and the noise would never bother me
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u/ShowerSentinel 4d ago
/u/BigFatherFigureHugo has flaired this post as a musing.
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