Combined annoyance response from railroad and road traffic noise in an alpine valley

CONTEXT: The aim of this study was to verify the contributing effect in the cases of combined road traffic noise and railroad traffic noise on total noise annoyance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After opening the four-track railway of the Lower Inn Valley Route in Austria, an evaluation study was conducted by an interview survey (n=1003). The data of this survey included answers on annoyance caused by railroad, road traffic noise and total annoyance as well as self-evaluated noise sensitivity. RESULTS: When annoyance is only related to one of these sources, a 10% share of highly annoyed persons was observed at 59 dB for road noise and 60 dB for railroad noise. The annoyance model including both noise sources with a coefficient of 0.145 for road noise, 0.034 for railroad noise and 0.431 for noise sensitivity (all p-values < 0.01) showed a regression coefficient R(2) of 0.299. The presence of road background noise did not influence the annoyance on railway noise. CONCLUSION: The combined influence of road and railway noise showed an increase of total annoyance.