An interdisciplinary study on railway and road traffic noise: Annoyance differences

An interdisciplinary study was made to compare the annoyance responses to railway noise and to road traffic noise. Acoustical measurements were taken in eight areas to assess the noise levels caused by railway and road traffic noise. Road traffic noise was predominant in four of the eight areas and railway noise in the other four areas. A total of 1600 residents were interviewed. The data allow the individuals’ annoyance responses to be related to the individual noise levels for each of the two sources. Some preliminary results of the not yet completed study with regard to the relative annoyance by the two sources are described. The general annoyance (24 h, by day and at night) is less for railway than for road traffic noise at equal noise levels. Also, the disturbances at night attributed to railway noise are less than those attributed to road traffic noise. In the daytime, the difference in the disturbance between railway and road traffic noise depends on the disturbance aspect considered: With regard t...