We all love the modern convenience of driving in a car. What if we didn’t have them? What about the noise they make on the roads? In the United States, there are 281.3 million cars registered. That is a lot of cars on the road and that’s why road wear out quickly.
The cause of traffic noise?
There are three main things that cause traffic noise.
- Volume of traffic: The more vehicles on the road the more noise there is.
- Speed of traffic: Higher speeds causes higher noise on asphalt.
- Heavier vehicles: Larger trucks with more weight make more noise than lighter passenger vehicles.
Many states put measures in place to combat against asphalt road noise. Here are some of the ways they accomplish that:
- Vehicle control: Vehicles like heavy trucks and anything commercial are regulated along with tires, mufflers, engines enclosures, etc.. These are all measure to reduce road noise.
- Planning and Design: There are many ways to reduce noise using design techniques. Vegetation will reduce road noise. Traffic routes through sensitive areas and planned out with reduces traffic in mind. Making roads with as little hills as possible helps to reduce engine revving and noise on the highway.
- Asphalt Pavement: A dense hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavement is as quiet at one hundred feet away as concrete is at two hundred feet away. The different types of asphalt mix help to reduce road noise too.
Asphalt roads can be made quieter when tires are mixed in. This is a technique called rubberized asphalt. Noise test suggest that this type of asphalt can reduce noise by 50% to 90%.
Sources:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/Air/TrafficNoise.htm
http://www.asphaltmagazine.com/archives/2004/Summer/Noise_Reducing_Pavements.pdf
http://www.wispave.org/downloads/WAPA_Tech_Bulletin_Asphalt_for_Traffic_Noise_Reduction.pdf
Posted in General Paving Articles
