Status of road traffic noise in Calcutta metropolis, India

Abstract

Road traffic noise was measured at 24 traffic junctions of Calcutta, India during the summer of 1993, with the simultaneous recording of the number of vehicles passing. The A-weighted values of Leq(24), Ldn, L10, L90, L99, Lnp and TNI were determined. Statistical regression equations of Leq(h) were developed as a function of logarithm of the equivalent number of light/heavy vehicles per hour for the entire city and for zones within the city.

RoadSoundSense: Acoustic sensing based road congestion monitoring in developing regions

“…Also, the nonlane based disorderly traffic causes excessive use of vehicle brakes and honks, adding to the noise. [10,11,12,13] study the high amount of noise pollution in the four Indian cities of Asansol, Jaipur, Kolkata and Varanasi respectively, and such pollution is common in other Indian cities too. Though we are using acoustic sensing, our aim is not to promote noise pollution.…”

Noise Level Distribution Functions for Outdoor Applications

“…This function is developed using the data obtained from a large-scale survey in air-conditioned o$ces and its accuracy of prediction relies on the relationships between percentile levels and¸C O . The more linear the relationships, the better the predictions produced by equation (1). In general, this accuracy also increases with¸C O [11].…”

Appraisal and mapping the spatial-temporal distribution of urban road traffic noise

“…The distance varied according to the site specific road geometry, road width and accessibility. Hence, to maintain uniformity, all field recorded sound levels (L eq-r ) were transformed to values, it would have been at a distance of 13 feet (L eq -13 ft), minimum sampling distance recorded, from the road centerline using following formula (Chakraborty et al, 1997):…”

“…The impact of road traffic noise on exposed population can cause annoyance by disturbing sleep, causing speech interference or interrupting daily activities (Chhatwal et al, 2005;Sommerhoff et al, 2004). While there is no risk of long term auditory damage from traffic noise, there is a great deal of evidence that noise generally can cause adverse health effects on people (Al-Dakhllah and Jadaan, 2005;Anonymous, 1983;Chakraborty et al, 1997;Chakraborty et al, 2002). The central pollution control board (CPCB, 2001) of India in its notification on ambient air quality standard for noise, which has been included as an air pollutant under section 20 of Amended air act of 1987 and has laid down the ambient noise standards.…”