What windows should be used to soundproof from traffic noise

Single glazing with storm windows absorbs sound reasonably well, I would not expect a huge decrease in sound level with triple glazing, but certainly not an increase. Single glazing alone is another story, it's sound absorption is terrible.

The increased sound is certainly due to the frames and adjacent construction. While there is often a correlation between thermal loss and sound transmission, sound is much trickier to manage well. It is sometimes counter intuitive. The construction joints must be carefully detailed. The general concept is to avoid any solid connection between inner and outer surfaces. Any connections should be via resilient, absorbent materials. Typically, you want to fill any voids with sound insulation, though in some cases this has been worse than a simple air gap.

Also consider exterior sound attenuators. Walls, fences, trellises, large shrubs, trees, berms all will help attenuate sound, but when you consider cost vs. benefits, such measures need to be carefully considered.

A white noise generator is like spraying perfume to cover a nasty smell. The smell is still there, just the perfume is stronger. The nastier the smell, the stronger the perfume needs to be to cover.

A white noise generator produces noise that our brain quickly ignores. If this noise is louder that the outside noise, then it will mask it. But a word of warning, if you have to turn the white noise generator up enough to cover loud outside sounds you might risk your hearing. Even though our brain doesn't 'hear' the white noise, our ears still do. And a constant loud noise will produce hearing loss over time.