THE DAY 'IN THE CITY WITHOUT MY CAR': EFFECTS ON URBAN NOISE

Since 1998, the French Ministry of Environment has organised an annual day "In the city without my car?". This day is aimed to encourage citizens to travel in the city without their car and to use transport means which are more respectful of the environment. It is a unique opportunity to carry out noise assessment in order to test the potentialities of noise reduction by actions on the traffic in urban areas. This article presents the results of the noise assessment carried out in 1998 and 1999. It shows that the reduction of noise is very dependent on the type of street and of the presence of public transport means. The subject of "urban background noise" and of the changes in the acoustical is also addressed, and it shows that some unpleasant sounds often emerge, and that it could be necessary to think about those sources. For the covering abstract see ITRD E107776.