Transport noise

Noise pollution is a significant environmental impact caused by transport activity. In 2022, exposure to noise from transport sources was estimated to impact the health and well-being of more than 100 million people in Europe. More than 20% of the EU-27 population lives in areas where road noise levels can cause adverse health effects. This percentage can reach up to 50% in some urban areas (EEA, 2021). The major source of noise pollution in both urban and non-urban areas is road traffic. Based on data reported under the Environmental Noise Directive (END) (EU, 2002), it is estimated that in 2017 around 90 million people in the EU were exposed to harmful levels of road traffic noise above the END thresholds. Noise from railways and aircraft has a much lower impact in terms of the overall population, but both are significant sources of local noise pollution. It should be noted that negative health effects start to occur below the END threshold of 55 dB for the day-evening-night period, i.e. the WHO recommends reducing noise levels to 53 dB Lden for road traffic, 54 dB Lden for rail traffic and 45 dB Lden for air traffic (WHO, 2018). Transport sources covered under the terms of the END, are those concerning major infrastructures such as roads with more than 3 million vehicle passages a year, railways with more than 30,000 train passages per year and airports with more than 50,000 aircraft movements per year, as well as all roads, railways and airports in urban areas with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Figure 17 shows the number of people exposed to transport noise levels above 55 dB during the day-evening-night period for 2012, 2017 and 2022. Long-term exposure to these levels can cause adverse health effects including annoyance, sleep disturbance, increased risk for developing cardio-metabolic problems and even premature death (WHO, 2018). Figure 17 also shows an outlook for 2030 with two scenarios, one conservative and one optimistic. The conservative scenario assumes fulfilment of the current legal requirements to reduce noise at source, and the implementation by 2030 of some non-binding mitigation measures such as the compliance with the current EU noise regulation for motor vehicles, a 25% electrification of the road vehicle fleet, and improved landing and take-off procedures for aircraft, amongst others. The optimistic scenario assumes implementation, by 2030, of a set of more ambitious noise mitigation measures that go beyond current regulations (ETC/HE, forthcoming).  Under an optimistic scenario that includes the implementation of a substantial set of additional measures such as reduction of speed limits on urban roads, a 50% electrification of road vehicle fleet, maintenance and rail grinding, quieter aircraft and aircraft night curfews, the number of people exposed to harmful noise levels of transport noise above 55 dB Lden is predicted to decline by about -18% by 2030 compared to an estimated 2017 baseline. Under a conservative scenario, the number of people affected by noise is predicted to increase by 3%. In terms of people highly annoyed, these numbers are –23% and –3% respectively (EEA, forthcoming). The decline in high annoyance is more pronounced than when considering only those exposed to noise levels above 55 dB Lden. This is because high annoyance accounts for the shift of people from higher to lower noise levels above 55 dB Lden, resulting from the implemented measures.

The main obstacle to reaching an overall significant reduction is the difficulty in reducing the large number of people exposed to road traffic noise. In addition to this, the projected growth in population and transport activity, as discussed in Section Passenger transport activity and Section Freight transport activity with Figure 1 and Figure 3, outweighs the benefits of implementing the measures. Although the scale of the impacts of rail noise is much less than that of road traffic noise, increased efforts also need to be made to outweigh the negative health impacts resulting from projected growth in rail activity, new rail infrastructure and faster trains. In terms of aircraft noise, even if the number of people affected by aircraft noise is to be reduced as much as the optimistic scenario projects, a very high number of people will still be exposed to levels of aircraft noise considered harmful to health by the WHO i.e., above 45 dB Lden (EEA, 2022c, ETC/HE, 2022).

Figure 17. Estimated number of people exposed to transport noise levels above 55 dB during the day-evening-night period for 2012, 2017 and 2022 based on END data and future projections (EU-27)

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