Figure 2 - uploaded by Jean-Pierre Gagné
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Source publication
The Quebec Ministry of Transport (QMT) undertook major work on one of Montreal's urban highway (A-15). During this work, highway A-15 was closed to traffic at night. As a result, the background noise in the neighbourhood was reduced from about 75 to 55 dBA (L Aeq). As a consequence of this strategy, the construction noise was more noticeable and it...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... evenings when data were collected, the participants were requested to use one of three descriptors (useful, no effect, and annoying) to respond to the following question: What is the effect of the masking noise? Figure 2 illustrates the proportion of responses obtained for each descriptor (useful, no effect, and annoying) as a function of experimental condition tested (ocean masker, waterfall masker, and no masker). The "Ocean" signal was perceived as useful masker by a large proportion of the respondents (> 80 %). ...
Citations
The effectiveness and feasibility of a noise masking technique to reduce road construction noises were discussed. A sound level meter was used to measure the level of ambient noise before and during the construction noise in the residential neighborhood. The residents were also asked to provide a rating of the level of annoyance at night when highway was open to regular traffic at night and when closed for reflection purposes. The results show that the ambient noise measured during normal night operation of the A-40 highway exhibits levels of noise varying from 65.2 to 68.9 dBA at the closet street to 50.2 to 53.4 dBA for farther away row of houses.
This study mainly aims to explore whether and how urban morphology influences the residential areas' capabilities of attenuating spatial traffic noise level and enlarging quiet area. A set of quantitative urban morphological parameters that are commonly used or accessible in urban design and planning are selected. Noise mapping technique has been employed and a Matlab program has been developed to calculate the spatial sound level indices. The results show that the spatial noise level attenuation mainly happens on noisy facades and noisy open areas, and the attenuation is more sensitive in open areas than on façade; the site with quieter open areas at L 50 or L 60 is prone to have a bigger size of 'Quiet Area'; Building Plan Area Fraction has significant influences on the spatial sound level attenuation on façades for indoor sound environment by traffic noise, and Complete Aspect Ratio and Building Frontal Area Index play important roles on the spatial sound level attenuation in outdoor open areas; Distance of First-row Building to Road and Building Frontal Area Index are the two important parameters for outdoor noisy open area reduction.
