Transport noise disturbances and public decision-making.

Transport noise disturbances and public decision-making. The public decisio n-making methods in transport are based on cost-benefit analysis, by which the consequences of the decision (standards for vehicles, new infrastructur es...) are converted in monetary amounts and compared to the cost of implem entation of the decision. But some of these consequences, especially those related to environment, are not directly expressed in monetary terms. The a rticle aims at offsetting this difficulty in the case of noise. The possibl e methods for getting money values of noise are presented; it is shown that the estimates to which they lead are coherent and consistent. Then a compa rison is made between the present procedures and the procedures which could be implemented, and it is shown that large gains of efficiency could be ob tained. (C) 2001 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.