Differences between railway and road traffic noise

In a field study, carried out between 1994 and 1998, the noise impact as we ll as psychological reactions in four areas exposed either to railway or to road traffic noise were measured for 1600 persons. Furthermore, body movem ents during sleep were assessed for about 400 persons by actimeters. The no ise impact was determined by noise measurements and calculations inside and outside the bedrooms of all persons concerned and was described by differe nt acoustical indices. The psychological reactions were recorded by questio nnaires. The analyses show typical differences in the acoustical and psycho logical factors between road and rail traffic noise; on the other hand, the differences with regard to body movements are rather low. There is also a high correlation between the acoustical and psychological variables for bot h road and rail traffic sources, whereas the correlations between the body movements on the one hand and the acoustical and psychological variables on the other are rather low. (C) 2000 Academic Press.