Urban road traffic noise and annoyance: The effect of a quiet façade

Road traffic noise in urban areas is a major source of annoyance. A quiet facade has been hypothesized to beneficially affect annoyance. However, only a limited number of studies investigated this hypothesis, and further quantification is needed. This study investigates the effect of a relatively quiet facade on the annoyance response. Logistic regression was performed in a large population based study (GLOBE, N∼18 000), to study the association between road traffic noise exposure at the most exposed dwelling facade (Lden) and annoyance in: (1) The subgroup with a relatively quiet facade (large difference in road traffic noise level between most and least exposed facade (Q > 10 dB); (2) the subgroup without a relatively quiet facade (Q  10 < ORQ < 10) in the subgroup with relatively quiet facade compared to the subgroup without rel...