Bearable Noise Limits - Bearable Noise Limits & Noise Emissions Ceilings
Overview
Background & policy context:
Annoyance due to environmental noise is regarded as an important issue for which a European approach has been developed over the years. According to the European Commission about 10% of the population is exposed to railway noise levels above the threshold for “serious annoyance”. Besides this, road traffic noise causes an even larger number of seriously annoyed: 30%.
This insight has lead to a number of European policy intentions and directives addressing environmental noise and its various sources. The question ‘What are bearable limits for environmental noise?’ is discussed regularly in different forums on a national scale and on a European level. Thus it was needed to provide a feasibility study on bearable limits for railway noise.
Objectives:
Inspite of its environmentally friendly image, rail transport encounters substantial public opposition to noise in some European regions. The Commission believes that “if no remedial action is taken, this could lead to restrictions in rail freight traffic along the most important European rail corridors. A possible modal shift from rail to road on these corridors would lead to increasing environmental impacts.”
Retrofitting 370 000 freight wagons is the main objective to avoid this scenario. The objective of the feasibility study was to set on bearable limits for railway noise.
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