Effect of Users' Social Characteristics on Soundscape in the Waiting Halls of Railway Stations

Abstract

It has been demonstrated in previous studies that the evaluation of soundscape was influenced by some social characteristics of persons. In this study, more than 600 questionnaire surveys were undertaken at waiting halls of 4 railway stations in capital cities of China, to determine how the users’ social characteristics influence their evaluation of soundscape. These results show that the relationships between evaluation of acoustic and gender or age are not significant (p>0.1), but female passengers were more careful on evaluation of sounscape. The acoustic comfort was influenced by income and education, with correlation coefficient is -0.35 and -0.32 (p<0.01), respectively, while subjective loudness was influenced by education and occupation, with correlation coefficient is 0.35 and -0.51 (p<0.01), respectively. This study can enhance the understanding of aural environment in railway stations and also can help architects using social characteristics design the better spaces for evaluation of acoustics in the waiting halls of railway stations.