Above ~30 km/h the noise of a car is mainly from the wheels etc., not the motor. Trust me, you don't want to live next to a highway even if all the cars on it are electric!
Yeah, that has societal cost too, to be sure. Which implies prima facie that such infra (roadways, high-frequency train lines) should be minimized. Since the throughout of mass transit is so much higher (iow, the societal cost per-user), mass transit is a better way to minimize those costs than cars.
EVs use regen for 99.09% of stops. Honking and loud music is a street problem and has nothing to do with cars. In the horse and carriage days, drivers would be required to carry a bell and whistle to move your butt out of their way.
When I was looking for a house in Seattle, I checked out a nice townhome in Wallingford beneath the I5 ship canal bridge that had a great view of the city. But this was during COVID and the noise was still horrible, so I noped out of that quickly. It was all tire noise.
Which "win"? There were multiple complaints here, not just noise. These EV incentives have actively hampered other goals and projects for a decade, one could argue it's a net loss.
The point is not about "stifling EV adoption", it's reducing problematic levels of over-dependence on cars in general. EVs don't solve all the issues that cars raise.
Noise is a relevant factor in that discussion, not compared to internal combustion engines[1], but compared to fewer cars in general.
