Analysis of Traffic Noise Annoyance at Intersections in Mid-Sized Indian Cities

Abstract

Traffic noise threat is higher at intersections in mid-sized cities due to complex road geometry, reckless driving, heterogeneous traffic flow and poor traffic management. Traffic noise reduces the quality of life and causes negative impacts on health. Annoyance is a commonly reported problem due to traffic noise, which can mediate various health problems, including cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbances, and stress. Therefore, the current study aims to analyse annoyance levels at intersections in mid-sized cities. Various personal and situational factors such as gender, age, and education affect the annoyance levels. This study investigates the effect of individual characteristics and traffic noise levels on annoyance levels at intersections in mid-sized cities. For this, hourly equivalent noise level (Leq) due to road traffic is measured near the facades and individual characteristics (i.e., age, gender, income, education, exposure hour, and noise sensitivity) are measured based on the community survey at 15 intersections in Kanpur. In addition, the annoyance level of a person is measured during different activities such as conversing, reading, resting, sleeping, using phone, watching TV, and working. The results indicate that gender, age, and income do not significantly affect annoyance, while noise sensitivity, education, exposure hours and Leq significantly affect annoyance levels. Noise sensitivity has the highest effect on annoyance among people residing at intersections, followed by education, exposure hour, and Leq. The developed PLS-SEM model has a 69% capability to explain the variance in annoyance levels at intersections in mid-sized cities. This finding has important implications for public health interventions, as it suggests that targeting noise sensitivity could effectively reduce negative effects of traffic noise on health. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.