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Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles

With developments in science and technology, the number of electric vehicles will increase, and they will even replace ICE vehicles. Thus, perceiving the presence of approaching electric vehicles on the road has become an important issue. In this study, the auditory detectability of the electric veh...

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Autores principales: Hsieh, Min-Chih, Chen, Hung-Jen, Tong, Ming-Le, Yan, Cheng-Wu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501880
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179290
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author Hsieh, Min-Chih
Chen, Hung-Jen
Tong, Ming-Le
Yan, Cheng-Wu
author_facet Hsieh, Min-Chih
Chen, Hung-Jen
Tong, Ming-Le
Yan, Cheng-Wu
author_sort Hsieh, Min-Chih
collection PubMed
description With developments in science and technology, the number of electric vehicles will increase, and they will even replace ICE vehicles. Thus, perceiving the presence of approaching electric vehicles on the road has become an important issue. In this study, the auditory detectability of the electric vehicle warning sound at different volumes, distances, and environmental noise levels was investigated. To this end, the detection rate was recorded in experiments with three environmental noise levels (50, 60, and 70 dBA), two sound pressure levels (SPLs) of the warning sound (46 and 51 dBA), three frequency combinations of the warning sound (5000, 2500, 1250, and 630 Hz for high frequencies; 2500, 1250, 630, and 315 Hz for medium frequencies; and 1250, 630, 315, and 160 Hz for low frequencies), and five distances (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 m). The main results showed that the detection rate at 51 dBA was significantly higher than that at 46 dBA under a high-frequency warning sound; however, the detection rates were similar under medium- and low-frequency warning sounds. The participants’ rates of detection for warning sounds were less than 20% under all experimental conditions, and a high-frequency warning sound was not affected by environmental noise. With regard to distances, no significant effects were observed between the distances and the detection rate at any of the three frequencies. In addition, auditory thresholds based on high-, medium-, and low-frequency warning sounds were found through logistic regression analysis results. The results of this study can be used as a reference for the future design of warning sounds.
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spelling pubmed-84317392021-09-11 Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles Hsieh, Min-Chih Chen, Hung-Jen Tong, Ming-Le Yan, Cheng-Wu Int J Environ Res Public Health Article With developments in science and technology, the number of electric vehicles will increase, and they will even replace ICE vehicles. Thus, perceiving the presence of approaching electric vehicles on the road has become an important issue. In this study, the auditory detectability of the electric vehicle warning sound at different volumes, distances, and environmental noise levels was investigated. To this end, the detection rate was recorded in experiments with three environmental noise levels (50, 60, and 70 dBA), two sound pressure levels (SPLs) of the warning sound (46 and 51 dBA), three frequency combinations of the warning sound (5000, 2500, 1250, and 630 Hz for high frequencies; 2500, 1250, 630, and 315 Hz for medium frequencies; and 1250, 630, 315, and 160 Hz for low frequencies), and five distances (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 m). The main results showed that the detection rate at 51 dBA was significantly higher than that at 46 dBA under a high-frequency warning sound; however, the detection rates were similar under medium- and low-frequency warning sounds. The participants’ rates of detection for warning sounds were less than 20% under all experimental conditions, and a high-frequency warning sound was not affected by environmental noise. With regard to distances, no significant effects were observed between the distances and the detection rate at any of the three frequencies. In addition, auditory thresholds based on high-, medium-, and low-frequency warning sounds were found through logistic regression analysis results. The results of this study can be used as a reference for the future design of warning sounds. MDPI 2021-09-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8431739/ /pubmed/34501880 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179290 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hsieh, Min-Chih
Chen, Hung-Jen
Tong, Ming-Le
Yan, Cheng-Wu
Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles
title Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles
title_full Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles
title_fullStr Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles
title_full_unstemmed Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles
title_short Effect of Environmental Noise, Distance and Warning Sound on Pedestrians’ Auditory Detectability of Electric Vehicles
title_sort effect of environmental noise, distance and warning sound on pedestrians’ auditory detectability of electric vehicles
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501880
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179290
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