Abstract:

In different studies of noise annoyance ratings, the overall annoyance of a multiple-noise-source situation is often rated to be less annoying than the most annoying single source. There have been various explanations for this phenomena, one of which is that people are not able to rate multiple-noise-source situations, because overall noise annoyance from more than one source presented a task too complicated to be achieved. Literature studies show the need for different methodical procedures and acoustical parameter sets to identify the particular effects of annoyance. In a socio- and psychoacoustical field and laboratory study on this issue, different combinations of synergetic environmental traffic noise are evaluated. Frames of reference for judging the annoyance of a single noise source are compared to the overall annoyance in a multisource environment. The meaning of social features like status, mode of living, courses of daily and weekly activity, strategies of noise perception and noise management, and degrees of the inhabitants' capacity to deal with traffic and noise interference is analyzed. Further, psycho- and socioacoustic indicator models on the basis of these and future comparative case studies are discussed.