Noise-conscious driving behaviour in road traffic and the potential influence of visual cues

Careful driving in road traffic improves safety as well as potentially promotes ecological and economical driving behaviour. However, associated aspects such as anticipatory driving, consistent driving speed, and early upshifts when switching gears also influence individual noise emissions. While noise impact assessment often focuses on those affected, little research has been conducted on noise-conscious behaviour. In this work we present a driving experiment conducted in conventional road traffic which investigates potential strengthening of active self-regulation due to visual cues. Participants of the intervention group were provided with continuous visual feedback about their car's noise emission based on their driving behaviour, and were confronted with two static information signs placed along the driving route. This paper comprises the methodological approaches as well as results of the experiment. This work contains parts of the commissioned research project FE-Nr. 69.0013/2022, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport represented by the German Federal Highway Research Institute. The responsibility for the content lies solely with the authors.