Road Traffic in Urban Areas: A Perceptual and Cognitive Typology of Pass-By Noises

For road traffic noise maps, the noise exposure situation is represented using the energy-based index LDEN (day-evening-night level). When it comes to linking it to road traffic noise impacts (for example in terms of noise annoyance), its relevance can be questioned. Focusing on road traffic in urban areas, this study intends to contribute to a more meaningful characterization of road traffic noise. In order to do so, the advantages of both classical psychoacoustic methods and a recent cognitive approach are used. Two experiments were carried out using road traffic pass-by noises that were extracted from in situ recordings. Experiment 1 introduced these pass-by noises to a panel of subjects within a free categorization task followed by free verbalization. Experiment 2 presented a selection of these pass-by noises to another panel of subjects in a pair-wise comparison test. The results of experiment 1 and experiment 2 are discussed and support the proposal of a multicriteria typology of road traffic pass-by noises based on perceptual as well as cognitive mechanisms, including sound source identification. The categories of the proposed perceptual and cognitive typology are mainly structured by two criteria relative to the vehicle type and the vehicle driving condition. Two-wheeled vehicles are processed by subjects differently than other types of vehicles. This could be due to negative assessment related to sound source identification and acoustic signal processing. References: 16 references open in new window Articles that cite this article?