Modeling urban traffic noise dependence on energy, assisted with Monte Carlo simulation

Traffic noise, as energy phenomena, depends on the energy source used. The key components of noise are rolling, aerodynamic and engine noise, with over 95% of source energy coming from engine power supply. The relationship between noise and energy spent to produce it was studied before. However, by then, limited to car noise. The upcoming developments conducted to the current paper that presents a global model including bus, truck and motorbike, based on a new concept of speed and energy that support the continued knowledge and the major developments that have now been considered. New on-site data was collected on cars and original data was collected on bus, trucks and motorbikes. An innovative approach was used to build a noise model based on Monte Carlo simulation of vehicles mix that correlates speed and energy consumption, using research data. Results allow concluding that conventional urban traffic management strategy contributes to increase energy consumption (rather than reducing noise) at a rate of almost 0.045 kgCO2 vehicle/km/day. This means that in an average European town the reduction of urban maximum speed from 50 to 30 km/h does not reduce noise but increases carbon footprint in 1.17 tonCO2 per day