Overview of Australian Road Traffic Noise Policy 2016.

In common with the rest of the developed world, road traffic noise has been a public policy issue in Australia for many years. From attitudinal studies relating to noise in the environment, it is consistently shown that the higher annoyance scores for noise heard within the home result from road traffic noise. Governments in Australia, at all levels, have responded with a range of traffic noise management measures. At the federal government level these have primarily related to reducing noise at the source, namely the vehicle. State governments have developed traffic noise policies to guide the design for major roads and to control the planning of new noise-sensitive areas adjacent to major road corridors. Local governments have also considered traffic noise and introduced local traffic management measures on roads they control. This paper reviews and discusses the approaches in the different policies in current use in Australian states and territories for the management of road traffic noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]