Buying near a motorway

onylon

My house is right next to a motorway/slipway (the worst bit!)  and everyone who lives on my street talks about what a nice and quiet area we live in. These houses rarely come in the market and despite the motorway they sell at a considerable premium compared with the surrounding area so it is clearly something that people are willing to overlook. Granted there is a big bank and trees so you can't actually see the motorway.

The hum is moderately loud but constant so it's not something I really notice most of the time. Prevailing wind is towards the motorway which means average air pollution is very low. I was really concerned about it when we viewed but the location was otherwise perfect and the house ticked all my boxes. I have no regrets and totally love the place.

My last place was a flat above a T junction in London and the noise was unbelievable. Lots of honking, shouting, drunk people etc and in quiet times ambulances would blare the siren as they get to the junction so the noise was much more jarring and hard to ignore at night. We also got the 'black dust' which is really horrible and gets everywhere. 

benson1980

Salemicus said:

But I didn't say it was all good! I said there was no "black dust" - which some people have claimed is pervasive - but that the noise gets a bit annoying at the back of the garden. 

Plus @benson1980 has terrified me! I'm going to try to arrange a third viewing. 

I think in summary, a third viewing now with the benefit of a few different perspectives, is a wise move. If our house had been set back another 60-70m it may have been alright, but then I'm envisaging the M25 to be a lot noisier than the M-way we were contending with.
When we researched pollution it didn't actually seem that much of an issue as our prevailing wind blew in the other direction and also the traffic wasn't stationary much. Again it might be a different kettle of fish with the house you are looking at.

AnotherJoe

csgohan4 said:

dont electric cars have to produce some form of noise to alert pedestrians to their presence. Will it activate at higher speeds on the motorway?

No it switches off above a fairly low speed like 15mph or so. 

NiaBrown

If it ticks your boxes and you've made a few visits, I say go for it I used to live directly under a busy flight path in Windsor back when Concorde was still flying twice a day - after a month or so I barely even noticed the sonic boom. I should point out I'm autistic and some sounds really bother me, but the "white noise" of traffic wouldn't be one of them.
Do your due diligence regarding air pollution, but personally I'm not convinced that being 85m from a motorway is worse than being, for instance, in a flat next to a busy road junction in an urban area.