People who live by busy roads have 75% fewer friends than those on quiet streets

The chances of making a new companion in a traffic-heavy street are just a quarter as good as they would be in a tranquil village, investigators said.

Householders who endure constant car noise suffer a ‘considerable deterioration of their local social lives’, they revealed.

Good neighbours: Less car noise increases the chances of making new friends

The investigation looked at three streets in north Bristol with light, medium and heavy traffic and the relative loneliness of people living there.

It found that road traffic, which has grown more than tenfold in the UK since 1951, tends to isolate and act as a barrier between neighbours.

One resident of Muller Road in Bristol, who puts up with 20,000 cars driving past his home daily, told the study: ‘Traffic is like a mountain range, cutting you off.’

Another, a father of one, said: ‘Our four-year-old girl has a constant cough and we limit the amount of time she spends outside. We’re constantly breathing in pollution.’

Researcher Joshua Hart, who carried out the work for a master’s degree at the University of the West of England said: ‘Interviews with residents indicate that growing motor traffic has forced people to make major adjustments in their lives, to shield against the nearly constant noise, pollution, dust and danger outside their front doors.

‘Many residents revealed that they experience sleep disturbances, no longer spend time in the front of their homes, and curtail the independence of their children in response to motor traffic.

‘This study shows that the deterioration of neighbouring in this country may well be down to our own travel habits. We created this problem, and now we have a responsibility to solve it.’

A study of San Francisco residents in 1969 came to similar conclusions, but the experiment had not been done in Britain before.

With an extra 5.7 million cars expected on the UK’s roads by 2031, the university is recommending the Government stem traffic by investing in public transport, walking and cycling.