Free texting sound effects3/25/2023 ![]() As a result of these changes, housing can be built closer to streets. A similar trend can be observed in the Netherlands which, with the expected implementation of a new environment and planning act, might allow increased façade levels of up to 70 dB. The latter is especially relevant for countries with a shortage of affordable urban housing such as Sweden, which therefore decided to lower the housing standards for small apartments, allowing higher noise levels. While local governments in collaboration with organizations such as the EU or the World Health Organization aim to reduce overall noise exposure by regulating traffic noise, such regulations come at the price of either reduced traffic flow, increased construction costs or less available space for dwellings. In addition to occupational noise exposure, environmental and especially road-traffic noise has a major impact on our society and is, according to the European Environment Agency, responsible for thousands of premature deaths as well as millions of cases of chronic high annoyance and sleep disturbance in the European territory. These effects include hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, sleeping disorders, learning impairments, annoyance and other health problems. ![]() In the following decades, more and more research on the human response to noise was conducted, and it became clear that noise exposure does not only have temporary effects but can cause long-term damage to the auditory system as well as influence health and well-being. Motivated by the progressing industrialization, these experiments often focused on workers being exposed to high machine noise levels which were found to affect humans both on a biophysical as well as a cognitive level. ![]() Research investigating the impact of noise on humans already started in the early 20th century. If there is a difference in the human response to road traffic noise with constant L Aeq but different time structures, the used methods are not suitable to detect them. This indicates that moderate traffic noise levels can influence cognitive performance and perceived workload. Post hoc tests showed no significant differences between the two noise conditions, but there were significant differences between noise and silence. Significant effects of the sound condition on the multivariate workload results as well as on the number of commission errors in the continuous performance test were found. Additionally, participants answered a questionnaire regarding their preferred acoustic environment for concentrated working. A group of 42 participants performed a continuous performance test as well as a NASA-TLX workload test under three different sound conditions, i.e., close traffic, far traffic, both with the same equivalent sound pressure level of L Aeq ≈ 40 dB, and silence. This study investigates the effect of such temporal changes on subjective workload and cognitive performance. Regulations often limit equivalent sound pressure levels which do not account for changes in time structure that occur when decreasing the road distance. Urbanization leads to an increased demand for urban housing, which can be met by building dwellings closer to streets.
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