Exploring psychoacoustic indicators of tyre/road noise in urban environments

Abstract

Road traffic noise is the most common source of community noise in urban areas, causing adverse impacts on the health and well-being of the exposed population. Therefore, mastering road traffic noise perception is key to tackling noise pollution. Vehicle noise is mainly produced by the tyre/pavement interaction, especially for light vehicles, which compose most of the vehicle fleet in urban environments. In this paper, tyre/road noise recordings were collected with the Close-ProXimity (CPX) method using the P1 reference tyre for light vehicles and employing low speeds, up to 50 km/h. Road surface types were chosen to represent urban environments, such as cobblestones, aged and recently-laid dense asphalt concrete and low-noise pavements. Noise levels and psychoacoustic parameters were retrieved to describe the complex time- and frequency-dependent signal features of tyre/road noise. The sensitivity of psychoacoustic indicators to differences in road surface type, age, and testing speeds was explored. Ultimately, a tyre/road noise catalogue that lists noise levels and noise features more closely related to human perception can aid urban planning and environmental noise control.