Traffic Noise
April 7, 2009 2:30 PM
By Cllr Alan Bryden in County Council
By Cllr Alan Bryden in County Council
I have the Oxfordshire 2030 Delivery Plan, which has a sub-heading on its cover: "Delivering on our pledges to improve quality of life in the county". Inside it says: "By 2030 we want Oxfordshire to be recognised for its economic success, outstanding environment and quality of life." These are fine words and I hope I live to see it.
There is no doubt that people's quality of life is adversely affected by environmental noise, of which the major source is road traffic noise - we have heard an example earlier today of the effect of the noise from vehicles in the A40 on people who live close to that road. I concentrate on tyre noise - for private cars above 20 mph it is tyre noise which dominates; for lorries it is about 35 mph.
There has been much technological progress in tyre design since the early 1970s to try to reduce road noise levels. However overall noise levels have not decreased, as progress has been cancelled out by increases in traffic and the trend towards heavier and more powerful vehicles and wider tyres. Our house is close to the Oxford Road in Abingdon and we have certainly noticed the increase in traffic noise since we moved there in the 1970s. As an aside one of the reports I read stated clearly that quieter tyres do not compromise safety (wet grip or aquaplaning), or fuel economy (rolling resistance).
We have heard about the A40; in Abingdon we still have a problem with the A34 which I feel casts a blight on half the town. I congratulate the residents in north Oxfordshire on their tireless campaigning to get the A34 resurfaced between Peartree and Weston, and hope that road surface noise has significantly decreased and that their quality of life has now significantly improved. In fact the A34 was only one of 17 roads with concrete surfaces identified by the Highways Agency for priority resurfacing, and I find it scandalous that it took so long to make improvements, and that this type of road surface was still being built long after the problems had been uncovered.
We had some weeks of disruption last summer in Abingdon with the A34 closed in one direction overnight for resurfacing and all traffic diverted around the town's peripheral road. I had hoped for an improvement with a quieter surface - I don't have accurate measurements to back this up, but as far as I can tell it has not made a blind bit of difference.
One report I read said that road authorities in several countries have invested in research to develop quieter road surfaces which also correspond to cost, safety and durability requirements - the countries mentioned include Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Japan; the UK was not mentioned. This report said that use of low noise surfaces should be targeted on busiest roads in densely populated areas, and noise maps should be produced to highlight these. That is what our motion proposes. I should add that noise measurements, like air quality measurements, need to be taken under a range of different atmospheric conditions - on a cold winter's morning the noise from the A34 can be almost deafening although it is more than ½ mile from my house.
I shall finish with a personal experience. I was walking with some friends recently in Shotover and Horspath, and we decided to try out the path diversion round the BMW works after the closure of Roman Way. You are more or less walking alongside the Oxford Eastern bypass with four lanes of fast moving traffic (nominally 50 mph). The noise was appalling and after a short distance we gave up and turned back. I shall not walk there again - but there are people living in the houses and flats on the other side of the road who have to put up with this noise all the time. It must be one of the prime places for noise measurements.
This motion is a first step towards addressing some of the problems in Oxfordshire. If we intend to be recognised for outstanding environment and quality of life, we have to do something about road traffic noise. Please support the motion
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