Sound Walk to Work

The travel to my workplace at the observatory in the World Trade Center is very robotic and seldom varies from day to day. I usually have my headphones on for the duration of the trip because the random noises on the train, and in the Oculus seem unnecessary to listen to. For this sound walking exercise I decided to use my trip to my workplace. My walk began by me leaving the house to walk to the bus. I usually don’t have my headphones in for this small walk because its quiet and calming. There were some birds chirping and some cars passing by. The cars weren’t loud, but you could hear tires going across asphalt. My bus stop is more of the same but had more cars. Once I got on the bus, the sound of the bus engine running in the back was the loudest sound I could hear. The bus was relatively empty, so it wasn’t too chaotic. Even with people progressively coming in, there weren’t any people talking or making noises. It was just the repetitive engine sound, the sound of the Metro Card reader, and the automated bus messages. Occasionally people shuffled or fussed around in their seat or to make space for others. When I got off the bus to the train station, you could defiantly hear people walking down stairs and the Metro Card reader going off frequently. The train ride was almost the same as the bus. Aside from the regular sounds from the train, people didn’t really make noise. This may be because it was the morning, and nobody really has the energy or the mood to talk to anyone. When I reached my stop, you could hear a muffled roar of people coming from the Oculus right before you reach the observatory. People in the Oculus were louder because it is a tourist site. The sound of the people was echoing across the space.  The time of the day may have influenced the amount of human interaction regarding sound. A lot of the sounds I heard were digital, automated, or due to the transportation itself. I guess nobody really had the time to stop to conversate or do much of anything during my trip to work.