It's not just urban areas. It is a scourge that plagues literally every corner of the world. There is nowhere in the city, the suburbs, small towns, or the middle of nowhere where you aren't subject to industrial levels of noise pollution generated by motor vehicles that have been intentionally and illegally modified to make as much noise as possible.
It used to just be motorcycles and sports cars. But it's now the most basic pickup trucks, family sedans, SUVs, and anything else that explodes fuel to move.
The total and complete lack of enforcement of existing noise pollution laws is the number one cause of the spread of this.
I had this problem – near 24/7 noise – but moved 20 miles west to a suburb that has speed bumps and significantly less through traffic. The average dBs outside went from ~65 to ~45. Maybe in the US, at least, the issue is that the quiet urban/suburban places are much more expensive than the loud places and so are relatively inaccessible?
Though, now that I think about it, the depths of New York City will be both very expensive and very loud.
I live in a place that was very similar to what you describe. In the last couple years it's become as bad as where I moved from some days.
A lot of it is the surrounding areas have been surrendered to the noise makers and residents in my town are friends with them and they come and go as they please at all hours, unhindered by law enforcement.
But dismayingly, more of the residents are getting louder themselves for whatever reason. The worst part is they by and large follow the speed limit but are still insanely loud so the police just look at it like I'm just annoyed and need to get over it.
It's truly the easiest thing to catch. I can't fathom why there's so little interest at any level of government to tackle this problem.
The first moves are being made on this. A couple of cities have just started trialing noise detection systems for loud vehicles. I’d like to see this rolled out more, especially in cities where a single asshole on a motorbike can disturb tens of thousands of people in minutes.
It used to just be motorcycles and sports cars. But it's now the most basic pickup trucks, family sedans, SUVs, and anything else that explodes fuel to move.
The total and complete lack of enforcement of existing noise pollution laws is the number one cause of the spread of this.