TRL has carried out a number of studies of people's attitudes totraffic to gain insights into the nature and severity of traffic nuisance in different traffic situations and to develop methods for predicting the degree of perceived nuisance from a knowledge of classified traffic flows and the physical layout of the road. The report concentrates on the nuisance which people experience from lorry traffic. This report describes some results from two recent surveys, carried out at a total of 51 sites in England. It was found from the first survey that perceived nuisance levels were strongly correlated with people's awareness of publicity about traffic issues which would affect flow levels. Following on from this finding, a second survey was carried out at 35 `stable' sites thought to be unaffected by such publicity. A number of variables were considered as possible predictors of lorry nuisance at stable sites - the logarithm of the flow of multiaxle (three or more axled) goods vehicles was, overall, the best predictor. Multiple regression equations are presented for predicting the lorry nuisance for given levels of lorry flow and road layout. They explain between 72 and 81 percent of the variation in perceived lorry nuisance to residents indoors at home, and between 54 and 69 percent of the variation for pedestrians, depending on the class of road. (A)
Samenvatting