Ahmed, A. orcid.org/0000-0002-4980-2376, Khan, F., Ahmed, M. et al. (2 more authors) (2023) Exposure of road users to the traffic noise in urban environment: insights from a mega metropolitan city. International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 20. pp. 13609-13618. ISSN 1735-2630
Abstract
An increase in urban traffic especially in developing countries like Pakistan has led to huge noise chaos on the major arterials with a lack of facilities to manage it. Such harmful excessive noise from road traffic creates a direct impact on the daily commuters and can have severe health consequences such as hearing loss, stress, and heart disease. Despite the alarming situation discussed above, research on the aforementioned topic in the developing world is limited. This paper for the first time measures the traffic noise experienced by four road user groups which include: (1) car drivers with open windows, (2) car drivers with closed windows, (3) motorbike riders with helmets, and (4) motorbike riders without helmets. The noise level experienced by these four road user groups was measured by travelling on one of the major routes (i.e. Saddar to 4K Chowrangi via Rashid Minhas Road) in Karachi (Pakistan) with four different devices. The highest noise level was 110 dBA obtained from non-helmeted bike riders while the closed-window car users received the least level of 49.8 dBA. Furthermore, there was no significant difference observed in the noise for helmet and non-helmet users. Therefore, there is a need to improve the design of helmets for reducing noise impact. The analysis of variance test performed also shows that the noise experienced by the motorcyclist is significantly higher than that of commuters in cars.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Iranian Society of Environmentalists (IRSEN) and Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University 2023. This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use (https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/policies/accepted-manuscript-terms), but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-04924-7. |
Keywords: | Heterogeneous traffic, Motorbikes, Karachi, Pakistan, Noise chaos, Helmet |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Sustainable Transport Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 Jun 2024 10:19 |
Last Modified: | 13 Jun 2024 10:35 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s13762-023-04924-7 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:213471 |