Capturing urban traffic noise dynamics through relevant descriptors

This paper is dedicated to acoustic descriptors and their ability to capture urban traffic noise dynamics. Analysis conducted in this article is based on acoustical measurements taken at five points which depict different typical urban traffic situations. The relevant scale for assessing the dynamics appears to be the duration of the traffic signal cycle. Existing descriptors fail to characterize urban traffic noise at this scale. A set of descriptors is therefore proposed to fulfil this shortage. It is based on the analysis of the mean noise pattern and the variations around this pattern. The set of descriptors proposed enables a differentiation between traffic noise environments which was impossible through existing descriptors. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.