PROCEEDINGS of the
23rd International Congress on Acoustics
9 to 13 September 2019 in Aachen, Germany

Noise-induced annoyance due to nocturnal road traffic:
results of a field study
Sarah WEIDENFELD1; Eva-Maria ELMENHORST1; Sandra SANOK1; Uwe MÜLLER1; Daniel
AESCHBACH1
1

Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center, Germany

EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Background: Traffic noise is a growing and serious environmental problem due to its association
with health risk, sleep disturbances and annoyance. In particular, annoyance is seen as the mostimportant adverse effect (1) and as one of the first and widespread reactions to noise (2). Since many
traffic noise studies are based on laboratory surveys or exhibit shortcomings in noise measurement,
there is a lack of valid exposure-response relationships between traffic noise and annoyance. To fillthis gap for road traffic, precise measurements of noise parameters (e.g. A -weighted energy equivalentsound pressure level [L Aeq]) are needed.
In addition to the acoustical characteristics of the noise event itself also non-acoustical moderators
have an important effect on the development of annoyance (3). Therefore we were interested in effects
of both non-acoustical and acoustical influences of road traffic noise on short-term annoyance.
Furthermore we intended to explore the effect of different noise sources on annoyance by comparing
data of road traffic with those of aircraft and railway traffic.
Method: Forty healthy participants (mean age = 29.1; SD = 11.7; 26 females) were studied at theirhomes in areas with moderate nighttime road traffic in the vicinity of Cologne and Bonn (Germany).
On four consecutive mornings the participants completed a questionnaire that asked for theirsubjective sleep quality (4) as well as their annoyance (ICBEN-Scale 1 = “not at all” to 5 = “extremelyannoyed”) and their perceived noise load due to road traffic noise in the previous night. Furtherquestionnaires were applied to capture psychological variables (e.g. the perceived degree of having
adapted to road traffic noise). Measurements of acoustic parameters were undertaken inside theresidents’ bedroom. Based on these recordings the L Aeq per night was calculated. We used ageneralized estimating equation (GEE) with the stepwise forward selection process conside ring
significance of the predictors and improvement of the QIC to find the statistical model that fitted thedata best. According to the final model we derived an exposure-response curve for road traffic
noise-induced annoyance.
In a further analysis the road traffic data were combined with those from two earlier field studies inwhich the effect of nocturnal railway noise (5) and aircraft noise (6) on residents’ annoyance in thevicinity of Cologne and Bonn were investigated. The pooled data sets were use d to develop a
comparative statistical model of annoyance due to road traffic, railway and aircraft noise (using aforward selection procedure as described above).
Results: The analysis of the road traffic data was based on a total of 29691 road traffic noise eventswith an average of approximately 189 passing vehicles per night. We recorded traffic noise events withthe L Aeq ranging from 18.4 dB(A) to 44.8 dB(A). The average annoyance rating was 1.76 (± 0.9). The
GEE revealed a statistically significant rise in the annoyance with increasing L Aeq from road traffic
noise (p = .023, OR = 1.159). The extent of the perceived noise load had a reinforcing effect (p < .001,OR = 44.606), whereas a high subjective sleep quality had a reducing effect (p = .007, OR = .924) onannoyance.
In the pooled data set annoyance increased again with increase in L Aeq (p =.001, OR = 1.043) acrossall types of traffic noise. In contrast, the perceived degree of an individual’s adaptation to the1sarah.weidenfeld@dlr.de1513

respective noise source reduced annoyance (p < .001, OR = .528). The probability to be annoyed
turned out to be higher for road traffic noise than for aircraft noise (p = .001, OR = 3.026), whereas
railway noise didn’t differ from aircraft noise (reference) in its impact on annoyance (p = .079, OR =1.812).
Conclusion: The current field-study on road traffic noise emphasizes the importance of subjective
sleep quality for annoyance responses and delivers a prediction model for road traffic noise -induced
nocturnal short-term annoyance in areas with moderate traffic. Additionally, the analysis of the pooleddata set revealed an important influence of the perceived degree of an individual’s adaptation andshowed that the extent of annoyance tends to vary depending on the respective noise sourc e. The L Aeq
proved to be a significant acoustical predictor of annoyance when taking noise from different traffic
sources into consideration. Since the moderate nocturnal road traffic of the investigated areas led torather low annoyance levels, prospective investigations should be extended to residential areas with
dense road traffic.
Keywords: traffic noise, annoyance, field-study, LAeq

REFERENCES
1. Guski R, Felscher-Suhr U. The concept of noise annoyance: how international experts see it. Journal ofSound and Vibration. 1999;223(4):513-527.
2. Ouis D. Annoyance from road traffic noise: a review. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
2001;21:101-120.
3. Fields JM. Effect of personal and situational variables on noise annoyance in residential areas. The
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 1993;93:2753-2763.
4. Griefahn B, Marks A, Robens S. Noise emitted from road, rail and air traffic and their effects on sleep.
Journal of Sound and Vibration. 2006;295:129-140.
5. Pennig S, Quehl J, Müller U, Rolny V, Maass H, Basner M, Elmenhorst E-M. Annoyance andself-reported sleep disturbance due to night-time railway noise examined in the field. Journal of theAcoustical Society of America. 2012;132(5):3109-3117.
6. Quehl J, Basner M. Annoyance from nocturnal aircraft noise exposure: laboratory and field-specificdose-response curves. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2006;26:127-140.

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