Noise annoyance assessment of various urban road vehicle pass-by noises in isolation and combined with industrial noise: A laboratory study

Abstract Noise maps are diagnosis tools which represent the noise exposure situation using the energy-based index L den (the day–evening–night level). Two major drawbacks may be attributed to noise maps: (1) energy-based indices only account for one acoustical factor (exposure level) that may give rise to annoyance; (2) combined exposures situations are left unframed. In order to contribute to the overcoming of these flaws, two laboratory experiments were undertaken. Experiment 1 consists in listening tests where perceptual and cognitive categories of various urban road vehicle pass-by noises including two-wheeled vehicle pass-by noises are studied from the annoyance point of view. This experiment allows to highlight spectral and temporal features, and to propose noise annoyance indicators based on common acoustical and psychoacoustical indices in order to take these acoustical features into account. Experiment 2 consists in assessing annoyance due to the previous urban road vehicle pass-by noises heard in the presence of a steady industrial noise. Interactions effects are found and attributed to the temporal evolution of combined noises. Perceptual total annoyance models are found to be better models than psychophysical ones. This last result highlights the necessity to continue efforts to improve the characterization of annoyance due to noise in isolation.