Effects of noise on pedestrians in urban environments where road traffic is the main source of sound

Research combining the measurement of objective variables with surveys of people's perception of noise on city streets is useful in terms of understanding the impact of urban noise on the population and improving the environment. Al-though previous investigations have analysed the factors that may influence the noise annoyance of citizens, it is usu-ally considered as a global aspect. This paper presents research based on in situ surveys and objective variables (urban, meteorological and noise indicators) to evaluate some specific effects of noise on pedestrians in urban environments where road traffic is the main source of sound. The results show significant relationships of the effects of noise and per-ceptions of how noisy urban environments are with variables such as building height, road category and temperature, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.37 to 0.64. Significant correlations between these subjective variables and the acoustic variables were also found, with explanations of variability that reached values of up to 50 %. A multivar-iate analysis revealed that both urban variables (especially the category of street) and environmental variables can be an alternative or a complement to models predicting the effects and perception of environmental noise based only on acoustic variables.

Automated summary

Research combining objective variables measurement with surveys on perception of noise on city streets helps to understand the impact of urban noise on the population and improve the environment. This paper evaluates specific effects of noise on pedestrians in urban environments where road traffic is the main source of sound, using in situ surveys and objective variables. The results show significant relationships between the effects of noise and perceptions of how noisy urban environments are with variables such as building height, road category, and temperature.