Environmental noise burdens a large number of the population in Europe. It has been estimated that about 250 million people in the EU are exposed to noise levels which are considered as annoying, at least. This noise pollution arises from traffic noise on a large scale. Considering the three main modes of transport such as road, rail and air traffic, the major part of traffic noise is emitted from road transport. Today, the predominant sources of road transport noise are the interaction between tyres and road surface, the power-train and the exhaust system. The contributions of these sources to the overall noise emission from road vehicles depend clearly on the operating conditions. Despite of the effort and success of research and industry so far, a noticeable and sustainable reduction of traffic noise on a medium-term scale is still a social necessity, also in view of the predicted further increase of traffic volumes. First of all, this requires further improvements at the system vehicle-road according to some basic principles of treating social problems. These principles are the technical principle of controlling noise at its source, the precautionary principle using best available technology and the polluter pays principle. Besides the primary measures, also secondary measures (like noise barriers) have to be further developed, as they enable effective short-term reductions of noise exposure under certain local conditions. On a medium-term and long-term scale, the road transport sector needs sufficiently quiet products and acoustically matched boundary conditions. For this purpose, the exploitation of the existing noise reduction potentials and the identification of future potentials is required demanding further extensive technological development and thorough research with special emphasis on system approaches. The implementation of new technologies, however, is not only driven by technical aspects, but also by economic considerations such as cost-benefit aspects.
Road traffic noise - a topic for today and the future
Verkehrslärm - ein Thema der Gegenwart und Zukunft
2005
10 Seiten, 6 Bilder, 24 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Road traffic noise : a topic for today and the future
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