Estimation of road traffic noise emissions: The influence of speed and acceleration

Abstract

This paper relies on vehicle trajectory collection on a corridor, to compare different traffic representations used for the estimation of the sound power of light vehicles and the resulting sound pressure levels. Four noise emission models are tested. The error introduced when the emissions are calculated based on speeds measured at regular intervals along the road network are quantified and explained. The current noise emission models might in particular misestimate noise levels under congestion. This bias can be reduced by introducing additional traffic variables in the modeling. In addition, significant differences within the models are highlighted, especially concerning their accounting of vehicle accelerations. Models that rely on a binary representation of acceleration regimes (a vehicle or a road segment is accelerating or not) can lead to errors in practice. Models under use in Europe have a very low sensitivity to acceleration values. These results help underlying the further required improvements of dynamic road traffic noise models.