Short-Term Annoyance Due to Night-Time Road, Railway, and Air Traffic Noise: Role of the Noise Source, the Acoustical Metric, and Non-Acoustical Factors.

Sarah Weidenfeld,Daniel Aeschbach,Rolf Fimmers,Sandra Sanok,Marie-Therese Puth,Eva-Maria Elmenhorst

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094647

Abstract

Field studies on traffic noise-induced annoyance have predominantly used estimated outside noise levels. We intended to complement existing knowledge with exposure–response relationships that are based on precise indoor noise measurements. Acoustic recordings inside the bedrooms of nightly road traffic and annoyance ratings in the following morning were obtained from 40 suburban residents (mean age 29.1 years ± 11.7; 26 females). We derived exposure–response functions for the probability to be “annoyed at least a little” (%LA). Further analyses compared data from the current study with those from two earlier studies on railway and aircraft noise. Annoyance increased with the number of traffic events and the equivalent sound pressure level. The inclusion of non-acoustical factors (such as assessment of road transport) improved the prediction considerably. When comparing the different traffic noise sources, %LA was higher for road than for air traffic at a given LAeq,night, but higher for road and railway than for air traffic at a given number of noise events. Acoustical as well as non-acoustical factors impact short-term annoyance induced by road, railway, and air traffic. Annoyance varies across noise sources, which may be due to differences in acoustical characteristics or in the temporal noise distribution throughout the night.

Highlights

Environmental noise is a widespread and intrusive phenomenon of everyday life
We chose roads taking the following criteria into account: (1) we selected roads in suburban areas with a speed limit of 30 or 50 km/h, (2) we excluded roads with conditions that might interrupt the pass-bys of road vehicles or encourage the development of vehicle columns, (3) we chose roads with a surface made of conventional asphalt concrete in generally good condition, and (4) we ensured that road traffic was the dominant noise source
The present study fills the gap for exposure–response relationships between nocturnal road traffic noise and short-term annoyance in suburban areas, taking the LAeq,night and the number of nocturnal events assessed by precise measurements inside the residents’

Summary

Introduction

Environmental noise is a widespread and intrusive phenomenon of everyday life. It is often accompanied by perceived displeasure, irritation, and discomfort [1], and is associated with health risk, sleep disturbance, and annoyance [2]. The assessment depends on the physical characteristics of a sound, e.g., intensity, frequency, and duration It is influenced by the individual’s attitudes, judgements, personality traits, and the context in which it occurs [5]. These non-acoustical variables are the reason why the same sound might be perceived by one person as a pleasure and by another person as noise. Numerous earlier studies affirm and highlight, in addition to the noise event itself and its acoustical characteristics, the effect of non-acoustical variables on long-term annoyance [5,6,7]

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