Rumble strips noise emission effects on urban road traffic

Road traffic has become a prominent feature of many urban areas and one of the dominant sources of community noise exposure. For this reason, a great deal of attention should be paid to reduce noise as urban planning activities are performed. In the last decade, traffic-regulation devices have been widely used on city roads. Rumble strips have been over-employed within urban and residential areas. Their function in successfully reducing traffic speed is extremely controversial, and they are responsible for noise pollution as vehicles transit over them. In this study, a determination of the effects rumble strips have on the acoustic climate is achieved by evaluating the Sound Pressure Levels (SPLs) produced as different-weight vehicles transit over them at various speeds. The recorded SPLs are compared with those produced by the same vehicles under undisturbed condition. An analysis of the measured equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level quantifies the noise impact these devices have on the urban area. Furthermore, as more complex parameters are used (e.g. A-weighted sound exposure level, percentile levels, spectral composition, impulse events, etc.), the results demonstrate that rumble strips aggravate the already noisy urban road traffic output without producing any improvements on vehicles circulation and road safety.