A glimpse on the noise reduction potential due to lower tyre noise emission limits

The introduction of the EU regulations 2009/661/EG and 2009/1222/EG provides a new chance to achieve traffic noise reduction directly at the source. Due to a 3-6 dB decrease in the emission limits for type approval, the potential for a comprehensively lowered immission level arises, allowing cost savings in noise protection measures without compromising the level of protection. The objective of the project presented in this paper is thus to apply the EU regulations to Austrian conditions in order to find the actually feasible noise reduction. Therefore, controlled pass-by measurements have been performed on typical Austrian highway pavements with a focus on tyres with low noise emission labelling.