At the top, I lay down on my back, in what felt like complete silence. A few minutes later, I began to notice the sounds emanating from my own body. A cup of coffee sloshing around my stomach. The whoosh of blood circulating around my skull. After 15 minutes, what sounded like a helicopter flew over my shoulder. It turned out to be a hummingbird, which began hovering three feet from my face, the sound of its wings almost comically loud.
A recent study ranks the noisiest cities across North America, drawing from factors like population density, traffic congestion, visitor return rates, and levels of noise and light pollution. San Jose landed at 14th place among U.S. cities with an overall score of 40.03 out of 100. The city's population density sits at 2,104 people per square kilometer, ranking 19th, while average monthly Google searches related to noise complaints come in at 8.490, placing 18th. Congestion levels hover at 29 percent, which is 14th overall.