PTW noise levels and potentials for reduction

Abstract

Motorbikes, scooters and mopeds (altogether called Powered-Two-Wheelers) are considered, based on surveys performed in the past, amongst the most annoying environmental noise sources in the cities. A few test campaigns were performed in real running conditions to verify how the PTW influence the overall noise produced by standard mixtures of road traffic. In the city of Athens a measurement campaign was performed aimed to quantify the noise of PTW in real running conditions, and in a set of representative locations. These results were also compared to other few available databases. The results of the test campaign showed that PTW are a consistent part of the traffic noise. By having analysed the contributions of other vehicle types as well, an indication on the potential noise reduction on the overall road traffic noise, if PTW are made more silent, is given. The tests and the results will be presented in this paper. © European Acoustics Association.