Developing a Good Practice Guide on the Evaluation of Human Response to Vibration from Railways in Residential Environments

Abstract

The adverse effects that noise and vibration from railway systems in residential environments can have on people are key obstacles for the development of new rail systems and the operation of existing lines. Recent years have seen an increase in public sensitivity towards noise and vibration from rail systems and the success of legislation to control noise levels around railway lines has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints about railway-induced vibration. Costly mitigation measures coupled with unclear or non-existent assessment methods mean that there is a need in industry and consultancy for clear guidance on the assessment of groundborne vibration from rail systems with respect to human response.The current EU FP7 project CargoVibes is to publish a good practice guide on the assessment of the human response to railway induced vibration in residential environments. The aim of the guidance will be to provide end users with a set of practical tools to assess the human impact of “steady state” railway vibration primarily in terms of annoyance and sleep disturbance. Encompassing the current state of knowledge regarding the human response to vibration in residential environments alongside the practical outputs of the CargoVibes project, this document is intended to promote policy and standard development in this field.The current paper will present the preliminary contents of the guidance, which have been shaped by a workshop held at the University of Salford. This paper is intended to promote debate and enable contributions from the IWRN community to ensure that the guidance is relevant to the current needs of legislators, rail and infrastructure operators, consultants, and local authorities. Preface. This paper was presented to the IWRN11 in Uddevalla, Sweden in 2013 as a forum for discussion on the contents of a good practice guide for the evaluation of railway vibration that was being developed as part of the FP7 project CargoVibes. Since that time, the guidance document has been completed and can be downloaded at http://usir.salford.ac.uk/30855/.KeywordsSleep DisturbanceAcoustical SocietyHuman ResponseResidential EnvironmentRail SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.