Community annoyance from aircraft and ground vehicle noise

Abstract

Data from published noise-annoyance surveys are related to a common measure of noise exposure Ldn. The results provided means for predicting the annoyance (experienced by percentages of people of normal and of supersensitivity) attributable to noise from aircraft and from street and road traffic. Correlations of 0.90-0.95 were found between Ldn and percentages of people annoyed by aircraft noise when low, moderate and higher levels of annoyance were measured for a broad range (35 dB) and a restricted range (20 dB) of Ldn. Noise from urban street and road traffic caused less annoyance than the noise from aircrafts when both had the same Ldn as typically measured or estimated for outdoors. The difference, equivalent to a difference of .apprx. 10 dB in Ldn, was attributed to acoustical factors that diminished in-and-around-the-home noise dosages from ground vehicular traffic compared to dosages from aircraft operations. Generalized functions showing degrees of annoyance and percentages of USA urban population exposed to effective levels of Ldn for aircraft noise and for street and road traffic noise were presented. An earlier analysis by Schultz significantly underestimated the annoyance associated with aircraft noise and significantly overestimated the percentages of the USA population to be exposed to effective levels of noise from vehicles of transportation.