Determining the Impact of Vehicle Traffic on Selected Noise Level Indicators in the Vicinity of the Unsignalized Intersection - A Case Study

Abstract

There is a growing concern about the negative impact of road traffic noise on mental and physical health in developing countries. Road traffic noise models are important for preparing prevention and mitigation plans in order to minimize noise levels. The majority of the researches have focused to model traffic noise on-road section for uninterrupted flow conditions. Research on traffic noise modeling for interrupting flow situations has been mainly focused on the intersection controlled by traffic light and roundabouts. A little attention has been given to model traffic noise at unsignalized intersections. The objective of this study has been to investigate the contribution of the traffic parameters and performances on the noise level at unsignalized intersections based on simple regression and multiple linear regression analyses. The noise level indicators have included Leq, L10, L50 and L90. The results have indicated that the traffic performance variables such as the degree of saturation and the average delay had a positive correlation with the traffic noise level. However, traffic volume had a higher relationship with the noise level compared to the traffic performance variables. Since the traffic composition has been dominated by motorcycles, it has been found out that the volume of motorcycles was the best predictor of the variation in traffic noise level.