Reactions to community noise

Most of the research on reactions of people to community noise is divided into studies of annoyance as measured by attitude surveys and annoyance as measured by complaint behavior, including legal actions. This research has provided means of testing the concept promulgated over 20 years ago that the average amount of noise energy from significant sources that intrudes daily into houses and living areas can be used to predict the impact of the noise on people in a community. However, research data on annoyance and complaint behavior collected over the past 10 to 20 years have shown that there are significant limitations and variables that must be considered in the fair application of the noise energy concept in its simplest form.