Temporal and spatial variability of traffic-related noise in the City of Toronto, Canada

Abstract

The majority of studies that assessed population-level exposure to traffic-related noise were conducted in European countries and less is known about the exposure to traffic noise in North America, particularly in Canadian cities. This study explored the temporal and spatial variability of traffic noise in the City of Toronto, the largest city in Canada. We conducted two cycles of intensive field measurement campaign to collect real-time measurements of traffic noise at 554 locations across Toronto between June 2012 and January 2013. At each site, we collected measurements for a period of 30 min during daytime. Repeated measurements were made in cycle two at 62 locations randomly selected from cycle one, which exhibited high correlation (Pearson's correlation coefficient (r): 0.79). In addition, continuous measurements of noise were recorded for seven days at ten sites. We observed that noise variability was predominantly spatial in nature, rather than temporal: spatial variability accounted for 60% of the total observed variations in traffic noise. Traffic volume, length of arterial road, and industrial area were three most important variables, explaining the majority of the spatial variability of noise (R(2)=0.68 to 0.74, depending on the cycle). In comparison to the 16-h equivalent sound level guideline for outdoor locations set out by the Ministry of the Environment of the Province of Ontario, 80% of our sampled locations exceeded this guideline (i.e. 55 dBA,16 h). These findings suggested ubiquitous traffic noise exposure across Toronto and that noise variability was explained mostly by spatial characteristics.

Keywords: A-weighted Sound Pressure Level; AIC; ANOVA; Akaike Information Criterion; Analysis of Variance; CCHS; CI; Canadian Community Health Survey; Credible Interval; DMTI; Digital Mapping Technologies Inc.; EU; European Union; Field measurement; INLA; Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation; L(eq) (T), L(eq) 16h, L(eq) 8h, L(eq) 1h; MCMC; MOE; Markov Chain Monte Carlo; SLM; Sound Level Meters; Spatial variability; Temporal variability; The Ministry of The Environment; Traffic noise; US; United States; WHO; World Health Organization; dBA; the A-weighted level of a steady sound carrying the same total energy in the time period T as the observed fluctuating sound. The time period T is given in hours.