Combined Effects of High-Speed Railway Noise and Ground Vibrations on Annoyance

The Shinkansen super-express railway system in Japan has greatly increased its capacity and has expanded nationwide. However, many inhabitants in areas along the railways have been disturbed by noise and ground vibration from the trains. Additionally, the Shinkansen railway emits a higher level of ground vibration than conventional railways at the same noise level. These findings imply that building vibrations affect living environments as significantly as the associated noise. Therefore, it is imperative to quantify the effects of noise and vibration exposures on each annoyance under simultaneous exposure. We performed a secondary analysis using individual datasets of exposure and community response associated with Shinkansen railway noise and vibration. The data consisted of six socio-acoustic surveys, which were conducted separately over the last 20 years in Japan. Applying a logistic regression analysis to the datasets, we confirmed the combined effects of vibration/noise exposure on noise/vibration annoyance. Moreover, we proposed a representative relationship between noise and vibration exposures, and the prevalence of each annoyance associated with the Shinkansen railway

Effects of Noise and Vibration Due to the Hokuriku Shinkansen Railway on the Living Environment: A Socio-Acoustic Survey One Year after the Opening

One year after the opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen (high-speed) railway, in 2016, we conducted a social survey targeting the residents of detached houses along the rail. Noise and vibration exposure levels were estimated at outdoor points closest to the noise source side of the houses. Of the 1980 people contacted, there were 1022 valid respondents. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between noise and vibration exposure and community responses. The results demonstrated that the noise annoyance and daily activity disturbances of residents living in areas without a conventional railway are higher than those of residents living in areas running parallel to a conventional railway line. This tendency was remarkable, especially for areas with high vibration exposure caused by the Shinkansen railway. There was no difference between before and after the opening of the Shinkansen railway in the evaluation of housing satisfaction, or regarding the preference for the residential area and quietness around the house. However, since the survey before the opening was conducted only in the Ishikawa site, it will be necessary to conduct before-and-after surveys in areas where there are no conventional railways, and where the speed of the Shinkansen is fast

Effects of Railway Elevation, Operation of a New Station, and Earthquakes on Railway Noise Annoyance in Kumamoto, Japan

This study investigated the effects of railway elevation, operation of a new station, and earthquakes on railway noise annoyance in two areas along a conventional railway line (CRL) adjacent to the Kyushu Shinkansen line: the north area with the CRL elevation and the south area with the operation of the new station, both of which occurred in March 2016. In April 2016, Kumamoto region was struck by a series of large earthquakes, prompting their inclusion in this study, as frequent aftershocks with loud ground rumbling might make people more sensitive to railway noise and vibration. Socioacoustic surveys were performed in both areas before and after the earthquakes. Because very few respondents in the north area reported that they were “highly annoyed,” further analysis was conducted on data from the south area. The exposure–annoyance relationship was found to be significantly higher in 2017 than in 2011 despite lower noise exposure. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that Lden, noise sensitivity, and serious damage by the earthquakes in addition to the operation of the new station significantly affected the annoyance in both detached and apartment houses. However, when the earthquakes caused minimal damage, they did not significantly affect annoyance

Representative Exposure–Annoyance Relationships Due to Transportation Noises in Japan

This paper focuses on clarifying the relationship between noise exposure and the prevalence of highly annoyed people due to transportation noise in Japan. The authors accumulated 34 datasets, which were provided by Socio-Acoustic Survey Data Archive and derived from the other surveys conducted in Japan. All the datasets include the following micro-data: demographic factors, exposure, and annoyance data associated with specific noise sources. We performed secondary analyses using micro-data and established the relationships between noise exposure (Lden) and the percentage of highly annoyed people (%HA) for the following noise source: road traffic, conventional railway, Shinkansen railway, civil aircraft, and military aircraft noises. Among the five transportation noises, %HA for the military aircraft noise is the highest, followed by civil aircraft noise and Shinkansen railway noise. The %HA for conventional railway noise was higher than that for road traffic noise. To validate the representativeness of the exposure–response curves, we have discussed factors affecting the difference in annoyance. In addition, comparing the Japanese relationship with that shown in the “Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region,” we revealed that Japanese annoyance is higher than the WHO-reported annoyance