Comparison of community response to transportation noise: Japanese results and annoyance scale.

Abstract

The results of social surveys on transportation noise in Japan were summarized. They were compared with published data in foreign countries based on the Fidell's single value of Ldn in the annoyance function which corresponded to 1/e (37 %) of highly annoyed. It was found that various kinds of response scales had been used in the past as listed in Appendix. The scales are expressed in some of different wordings. They are divided into 3 to 11 steps and the verbal descriptive labeling of steps are not always the same. Therefore, the selection of steps as highly annoyed is likely to affect the results of an-noyance response. For comparison of social survey data, it seems necessary to use the standardized annoyance scale to avoid the ambiguity in the measuring procedure of an-noyance. The expressions of an annoyance scale and steps in different languages and their translation are also important problems in the case of international comparison.