A Policy Indicator for Road Traffic Noise Emission

A Policy Indicator tool has been developed to globally quantify the large scale effects of road traffic noise source mitigation measures on average façade noise levels along different types of roads and overall numbers of annoyed and sleep disturbed people. Types of mitigation measures include vehicle noise limits, tyre noise limits (and label), road type and surface, traffic parameters, noise barriers and dwelling insulation. The Policy Indicator has been applied in the Netherlands to assess the overall effect of potential new vehicle and tyre noise limits, and which other measures are required to fully benefit from these. In this paper the Policy Indicator is explained and it is shown how it can be used to efficiently evaluate the future environmental gain from tighter vehicle and tyre noise limits, for the whole EU or for individual member states.