Road humps are used to reduce speed and improve traffic safety. There have been complaints about noise from residents living near to road humps. Noise was measured on eight test road sections with two to nine humps in Denmark. Roads designed for four different speeds were included (30-60 km/h). The humps were designed as circle humps where the cross section was a section of a circle. Noise was measured in the middle of a road hump, 10 m before or after a hump and at a position between two humps. Vehicles were divided into four categories: passenger cars, vans, trucks with two axles and trucks with more than two axles. For each vehicle, the noise and the maximum noise in octave bands and speed were measured. Driving patterns were registered. The speed and noise were reduced by the humps. However, on low-speed roads (30 and 40 km/h), the noise was increased 10 m from the humps due to acceleration. A questionnaire of residents showed that people living very close to the humps tended to be more annoyed than people living between humps.
Abstract