Determination of passenger car noise equivalent for mid-sized cities in India

The heterogeneity in traffic flow composition increases the complexity of road traffic noise analysis for mid-sized in India. This study aims to determine a passenger car noise equivalent (PCNE) with respect to the average traffic stream speed that represents the number of a particular vehicle category with reference to an identified vehicle based on their noise emission characteristics. In the present study, vehicles are classified as bus, truck, light commercial vehicles (minibus, minitruck), three-wheelers (vikram-rickshaw), two-wheelers (bike/scooter), car, e-rickshaw and auto-rickshaw, and tractor-trailer. Car is taken as a reference vehicle for estimation of PCNE in our study due to its high percentage in traffic stream. Data has been collected on both bituminous and concrete pavement in Kanpur city, India, to analyze the differential effect of pavement on the noise level. As per this study, tractors-trailers, trucks, three-wheelers, and buses had a higher PCNE value, while two-wheelers and cars had almost similar PCNE value. A comparative analysis of PCNE value at concrete pavement is also conducted by considering car running on the bituminous pavement as reference vehicle. The study suggests to employ PCNE value in traffic noise analysis as it converts the divergent traffic volume in terms of the car.