Estimation of increases in noise levels due to installation of transverse rumble strips on urban roads

Increases in noise due to the installation of transverse rumble strips were investigated, by first measuring noise due single vehicles crossing a pilot test field with and without a rumble strip. After that, a procedure was proposed and carried out to estimate increases in noise due to the traffic of vehicles, based on the measurements previously mentioned. This procedure was checked against expressions from the literature that estimate traffic noise as well as measurements in three arterial urban roads without rumble strips installed. Its accuracy was compatible with the ones obtained by applying the literature expressions, the errors lying below 3 dB(A). Then, by taking the aforementioned roads as case studies, estimations were carried out for the increases that would occur in noise levels if rumble strips were installed on them, leading to values between 6 and 7 dB(A). Although such values are dependent on the configuration of the rumble strip employed, the proposed procedure presents generality and could be applied to estimate increases in traffic noise due to installation of rumble strips, by departing from measurements of noise due to single vehicles obtained for a given rumble strip configuration.