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player ready...“Quieter jets don’t sway O’Hare neighbors” (Metro Northwest, Sept. 23) may have left readers with a mistaken impression that the majority of residents in the O’Hare vicinity feel that noise is a major problem and is getting worse. A survey conducted in March by two prominent national pollsters contradicts this notion.
The Tribune article cites the results of a mail survey sent only to area residents last February who have previously called a hot line set up to register complaints about noise. It is therefore not surprising that a majority of the respondents to this survey said that noise has increased and that they are skeptical about efforts to improve the situation.
But a scientific survey conducted for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce in March paints quite a different picture. A bipartisan team of Peter Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies, Inc. sampled opinions of 1,010 area adults, including an oversample of residents of townships in the vicinity of O’Hare International Airport. The poll found that only 3 percent of O’Hare-area residents said that noise “is a daily problem that has forced me to change my lifestyle.” In fact, a full 73 percent of respondents from the O’Hare area said that noise is not really a problem.
Citing the views of hot-line callers, the article indicated that 66 percent of area residents feel that noise has “dramatically increased.” Again, our survey showed that 65 percent of O’Hare-area residents said that noise has stayed the same or gotten better.
The fact is that most O’Hare neighbors keep the problem of aircraft noise in perspective and appreciate efforts to improve the situation. They also appreciate their proximity to jobs, investment and more flights to more destinations than anywhere else in North America.