Outline proposal for a good practice guide on the evaluation of human response to vibration from railways in residential environments

Abstract

The paper will present outline proposals for a good practice guide for the evaluation of human response to vibration from railways in residential environments. The context is the need to increase the proportion of freight carried by railways in Europe whilst avoiding additional disturbance from vibration to populations living nearby. Within this context, the European funded project CARGOVIBES is developing the good practice guidelines to assist in the evaluation of potential disturbance. In the guide it is proposed to include descriptions of the adverse response, primarily annoyance and sleep disturbance. The proposal is to use measured or predicted vibration metrics in conjunction with dose-response relationships to quantify potential adverse impact to residents. To this end, measurement and assessment of vibration will be considered, for example the equipment, locations, mounting and a description of the data to be acquired. The latest information on dose-response relationships will then be reviewed. Finally, various national limits for vibration will be evaluated against new scientific evidence on dose-response relationships.