In a downtown area the speeds are likely not high, and the traffic is likely stop and go, with lots of opportunity for revving engines as drivers jam the accelerator down from a dead stop. My previous apartment had a busy highway on one side, and a busy street with a stop light right before an onramp to said highway. The furious acceleration of cars going from a stop to highway speeds as fast as they can was much worse than the monotonous general highway whooshing sounds.

I've heard this called "breakthrough noise", and whenever I'm walking around and hear an obnoxiously loud noise from a vehicle I exclaim, "My Tesla doesn't make that noise!" Fortunately my walking companions generally find that amusing.

At least on major boulevards around my home and office, where speed limits range from 30 to 40 miles per hour (~64km/h), engine noise is dramatically more significant than tire or wind noise. These major boulevards with three to four lanes per direction are conduits for rigs, buses, and utility trucks with large diesel engines. As a pedestrian, when these things roar by, all I hear is engine noise. Grinding, roaring engine noise. Yes, they have tires, and yes, there must be some wind noise, but right down there at street level, it's all drowned out by the engine.

I agree with the grandparent, if we see these larger vehicles go electric in my lifetime, I will be very happy at the reduction in noise.

I looked this up a while ago, and tire noise accounts for 94% of noise over 60 MPH.

The main thing at (near) steady state noise at higher speeds is how well the car is at mitigating the road noise. At city speeds, having both a Leaf at home and a Toyota Sienna, that the noise from the Leaf is near nothing.

If I'm accelerating to make sure I make it through the yellow light, I never get a roar, an downshift, or anything of that nature. On my Toyota or any large car, that flares up and the noise is appreciable. If you floor it on an ICE at 60 to pass someone, that noise is quite loud, even against the road noise. On my Leaf, it's just road noise. I don't get a loud revving of the engine, just more road noise.

Also, here's a reference for interior cabin noise found here: http://www.auto-decibel-db.com/

Did you accidentally type "stop running over them"? Because if people started running over them, that would be an actual solution.