Abstract
Although most of the people who consider traffic noise to be a nuisance are the inhabitants of built-up areas, those who live close to busy highways often find this noise no less disturbing. This has been demonstrated very clearly by the Austrian opposition to night traffic on their highways. Noise being a very elusive subject, it is necessary to define first what the aims are directed at: (1) lowering the "measured" noise level of trucks as defined by current EEC regulations? or (2) reducing the nuisance caused to people by truck traffic? It appears that the two objectives are not the same. There are clear indications today that methods used to reach the first objective have no influence on truck noise nuisance.