Programme details Noise Research

Sound measurements taken underneath one of Birmingham’s most notorious traffic interchanges show the levels to be around 80 decibels. Remember, this is a quiet time of the day. During the morning and evening rush hours when traffic increases dramatically, the noise would be much higher. A heavy vehicle registers 80 to 85 decibels. Long term exposure to levels of 80 decibels and more could be harmful, experts say.

So what is urban noise doing to us and what can we do about it? Stephen Stansfeld, Prof. Psychiatry of Queen Mary University talks about the effects of urban noise: “It causes sleep disturbance, affects children's learning in schools,creates tension, headaches,.”.

Birmingham City Council is one of the participants in CALM II. Its environmental department under the direction of John Hinton has pioneered a valuable research tool called noise maps. CALM II aims to assess urban transportation noise from cars, trucks, trains and planes and come up with recommendations.
Like speed reductions, the introduction of low noise road surfaces, putting up some noise barriers..
Other research projects are assessing how vehicles can actually be made quieter. Technicians aim microphones at many different points to precisely identify which parts of the car are producing the most noise. By identifying these, car manufacturers can concentrate on redesigning components to reduce noise.

Through CALM II, and subsequent research projects European researchers believe that a realistic target is a reduction of 10db in urban noise by 2020. To our ears, it means it will be effectively halved.