Analysis of non-acoustic effects on noise annoyance caused by the Shinkansen Railway
Shigenori Yokoshima, Takashi Morihara , Atsushi Ota and Akihiro Tamura

The Shinkansen Railway system has greatly increased its transportation capacity since it was first constructed. However, this has led to increased noise and vibration by running trains, which has disturbed inhabitants of areas along the railway tracks. To preserve the environment of people living along Shinkansen tracks, and out of concern for their health, the “Environmental Quality Standards for Shinkansen Super-express Railway Noise” was promulgated in 1975. The standards state that noise shall be evaluated based on an energy-based metric: the energy mean value of the top 10 among 20 peak noise levels (LAmax). Recently, environmental quality standards regarding other noises were amended. New noise metrics are LAeq for noises in general living and roadside areas and Ldn for aircraft noises. Therefore, new metrics to measure the noise annoyance will likely be discussed in the near future. Three separate social surveys on community responses to the Shinkansen Railway noise and vibration have been conducted in Kanagawa and Fukuoka Prefectures, and the City of Nagoya, respectively. We assembled the survey data and analyzed the dose-response curves of the Shinkansen Railway noise. In particular, we examined whether non-acoustic factors affected the noise annoyance caused by the Shinkansen Railway or not. The analyses demonstrated that there were synergetic effects of the distance from the railway and vibration level associated with each of the residences on the noise annoyance. In addition, we explored whether or not demographic factors and responses to living environments affected the noise annoyance. Of the above factors, it was found that only gender provided a significant effect on the noise annoyance.

Key words: Shinkansen Railway, Social survey, Noise and vibration, Annoyance, Non-acoustic effect