Acoust. Sci. & Tech. 24, 6 (2003) PAPER

Analysis of road traffic noise level and control in Greater ,

Sayed Abas Ali and Akihiro Tamuray Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, 79–5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, 240–8501 Japan ( Received 14 May 2002, Accepted for publication 31 July 2003 )

Abstract: This study concerns road traffic noise in , the capital of Egypt, the largest city and the biggest 11th city in the world. Measurements taken in September and October 2001 for road traffic noise levels in Greater Cairo, indicates that noise levels in the city are higher than those set by Egyptian noise standards and policy to protect public health and welfare in residential areas, equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level ðLAeqÞ¼80 dB and higher are recorded, while maximum permissible level is 65 dB. LAeq are measured, and tabulated for 23 locations spread over urban zones of city. It has been found out that 91.3% out of locations display during day their LAeq are over 65 dB, and 73.8% out of total number of locations their LAeq are over 70 dB. Results of curbs (restrictions) to improve environmental conditions found that, in absence of horns, LAeq decrease at all sites, maximum reductions range between 9.4 dB and 10.8 dB occurred in downtown area. Omitting buses give a further reduction in LAeq varying between 2.6 to 3.7 dB. In absence of horns, trucks and buses, reductions in LAeq range between 6.0 to 10.2 dB. This shows that the town planner can use various strategies to change the traffic composition in order to achieve quieter city environments.

Keywords: Traffic noise, Measurements, Standards, Curbs PACS number: 43.50.Rq [DOI: 10.1250/ast.24.358]

Old Cairo as an example represents highly density of 1. INTRODUCTION populations, about 150,000 person/km2 [4]. Road traffic is the most significant sources of noise in the city. Road traffic noise problems arose in Greater Cairo 2. FIELD MEASUREMENTS in 1970’s due to population increase stemming from The purpose of road traffic noise monitoring was to accelerated growth, internal immigration, the larger num- obtain noise-level information which was representative for ber of vehicles, motor vehicles which are poured and added each site. This was obtained for 23 sites represent different into the already overcrowded streets [1,2]. In 1996 Greater kinds of roads as highways (road No.1), arterial (road Cairo was estimated to have populations of 18 million. Add No.2), collector (road No.3), and local roads (road No.4), two million populations swell daily as workers flow into located in different zones in the city as residential, tourism, the city from surrounding area, clogging roads and rail mixed, downtown, and industrial areas. Table 1 illustrates lines every morning and evening [3]. So there are traffic sites of measurements in Greater Cairo. Figure 1 indicates jam and traffic noise problems. Greater Cairo metropolitan zone distribution through the city of Greater Cairo. The area is spread across three of Egypt’s administrative data were obtained at the noisiest point near the facades of governorates; Cairo, Al Qalyobıˆyah, and Jıˆzah. In the last a particular building facing the road. The sound level meter period the urban blocks of three governorates adherence was portable and stood 1.2 m. A microphone was placed together and became one block. Many areas contain dense 1.0 m away from the facades of buildings and any reflective pattern of constant activity as commercial, administrative, surface. Measurement time interval was adjusted for 10 tourist center, cultural institutions, business establishments, minutes. LAeq, 10 min was measured automatically every 10 governmental offices, universities, and hotels, which minutes by precision sound level meter type ONO SOKKI together create a dense pattern of constant activity. So its LA-5120. The output of the sound level meter was fed into roads are too crowded and there are traffic jam everywhere. a digital printer type ONO SOKKI RO-110. All measure- ments were carried out during working days; the duration e-mail: [email protected] of each measurement in each site was during 7:00–21:00. ye-mail: [email protected] The volume of traffic was measured by using GPS [5].

358 S. A. ALI and A. TAMURA: ANALYSIS OF ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE LEVEL AND CONTROL IN GREATER CAIRO

Table 1 Sites of measurements in Greater Cairo.

Road No. 1 Road No. 2 Road No. 3 Road No. 4 Zone (highway) (arterial road) (collector road) (local road) Residential area Cairo Ismailia St. Sallah Salm St. Tariq al Naser St. Sanhuri St. (Naser city and — Kasser Aney St. Al-Munira St. Ibrahim Nagib St. Garden city) Tourism area Cairo Alex St. El-Haram St. Al Malk Faisal St. Tirit Abd al Al St. (Haram area) Mixed area — El-Azhar St. Bur Said St. Al Muezz Din St. () — Dokki Square Qasr al-Nil St. Champolion St. Downtown area — El-Attaba Square — — (Center of city) — Ramsis St. — — Industrial area Cairo Aswan St. Hulwan St. Al Maragi St. Mohamed Ahd St. (Hulwan area)

100

95 LA1 90 LA10 85 LAeq 80 75 LA50 70 LA90

Road traffic noise levels, dB noise levels, Road traffic 65 LA99 60

7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00

Time

Fig. 2 Road traffic noise levels every 10 minutes in Sallah Salm road, arterial road, on 20 September 2001 in period 7:00–21:00.

21:00. (For more detail about this road see site descriptions mentioned later in chapter of curbs). Table 2 indicates minimum and maximum limit for LA1, LA10, LAeq, LA50, LA90 and LA99 of every 10 minutes in period 7:00–21:00 in some sites in Greater Cairo, Egypt in September and October 2001. LAeq 7{21 was calculated for 23 different roads by using Fig. 1 Zone distribution throughout the city of greater Cairo, Egypt. the following equation and the results were as shown in Table 3. LAeq 7{21 ¼ 80 dB and higher were recorded. ! Relative humidity and temperature of sites varied from 50 1 Xn L ¼ 10 log 10LAeqi=10 to 60% and 20 to 30 C at the time of measurements. Curbs Aeq 7{21 10 n were introduced to improve environmental conditions as: i¼1 absence of horns, absence of horns and trucks, and absence Where, n; number of measurements from 7:00–21:00 of horns, trucks and buses. LAeq was measured before and measured every 10 minutes [6]. after restrictions. Table 4 illustrates distribution of measured LAeq, 7{21 values per zone (land uses). Figure 3 indicates a plot of the 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF mean values in different zones. MEASUREMENTS Observing Table 4 we can notice that 91.3% out of the Figure 2 illustrates road traffic noise levels every 10 locations display during the day their LAeq were over 65 dB, minutes in Sallah Salm road, Road No. 2, located in but Egyptian environmental law [7] mentioned that the residential area, on 20 September 2001 in period 7:00– sound level category of 66–70 dB is to be regarded as the

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Table 2 Minimum and maximum limit for LA1, LA10, LAeq, LA50, LA90 and LA99 of every 10 minutes in period 7:00–21:00 in some sites in Greater Cairo, Egypt in September and October 2001.

Range of noise

Area LA1 [dB] LA10 [dB] LAeq [dB] LA50 [dB] LA90 [dB] LA99 [dB] Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Sallah Salm 88.9 96.4 85.8 90.3 83.8 87.9 83.1 86.5 80.0 83.7 77.7 81.2 El-Haram Street 85.8 101.0 78.5 94.0 76.4 88.9 73.1 83.9 69.1 77.6 65.6 75.4 Dokki Square 89.9 99.9 83.6 88.4 81.0 87.1 77.0 84.3 69.7 81.2 68.8 79.8 El-Attaba Square 84.4 99.9 81.1 88.6 77.8 87.8 76.2 82.2 71.8 79.4 69.0 76.9 Ramsis Street 83.5 93.6 79.1 87.5 76.1 84.9 74.0 80.2 71.1 75.7 68.8 72.9 Hulwan Street 84.0 96.3 80.2 87.4 77.0 86.2 72.3 82.4 70.2 78.3 69.5 78.2

Table 3 Road traffic noise levels LAeq 7{21 [dB] in 23 sites in Greater Cairo. 80 78.7 78 Road No. 1 Road No. 2 Road No. 3 Road No. 4 75.6 76.2 74.8 Zone 76 72.7 LAeq [dB] LAeq [dB] LAeq [dB] LAeq [dB] 74 72 86.4 85.8 74.0 67.6 Residential area 70 — 79.3 72.6 63.6 68 Tourism area 86.2 80.8 71.8 66.0 66 Mixed area — 81.2 73.1 63.9 64 62 Road traffic noise levels, dB noise levels, Road traffic — 84.7 75.2 70.0 60 Downtown area — 83.0 — — RD TR MX DT NS — 80.5 — — Zone Industrial area 84.6 78.9 70.6 65.1 Mean value 85.7 81.8 72.9 66.0 Fig. 3 Mean LAeq 7{21 values per zone, residential (7 Road No. 1 with width 30–40 m, 6 lanes or more, more than roads): 75.6 dB; Tourism (4 roads): 76.2 dB; mixed (3 10,000 vehicles at rush hours, speed 80 km/h [5]. Road No. 2 roads): 72.7 dB; downtown (5 roads): 78.7 dB; indus- with width 24–30 m, 4–6 lanes, more than 5,000 vehicles at rush trial (4 roads): 74.8 dB. hours, speed 60 km/h. Road No. 3 with width 20–24 m, 4 lanes, more than 3,000 vehicles at rush hours, speed 45 km/h. Road No. 4 with width 12–16 m, 2 lanes, more than 1,000 vehicles at rush L 50 dB clearly acceptable hours, speed 30 km/h (Speed is limited by traffic administration). Aeq 50 < LAeq 60 dB normally acceptable 60 < L 75 dB normally unacceptable threshold of health impairments. According to this, from Aeq LAeq > 75 dB clearly unacceptable the point of view of preventive medicine, LAeq of 65 dB should be maintained as the limiting value of exposure to By considering the above criteria, all locations in noise during the day. Over seventy percent (73.8%) of the residential area classified as normally unacceptable and locations measured show during the day high values of clearly unacceptable. LAeq were over 70 dB. 52.1% out of the total number of Figure 4 shows, LAeq in highways (road No. 1) were locations measured display during the day extremely high 85.7 dB, in arterial roads (road No. 2) were 81.8 dB, values of LAeq were over 75 dB, i.e. 52.1% of the collector roads (road No. 3) were 72.9 dB, and in local population is exposed to noise greater than 75 dB, roads (road No. 4) were 66 dB. So major roads (highways considered as the threshold of health impairments. and arterial roads) were the noisiest roads in the city, and Observing Table 4 it is possible to see that in all areas LAeq in all kinds of roads in Greater Cairo were higher than there were no sites have measurements in accordance with 65 dB, considering by preventive medicine as the limit the local legislation except one site in industrial area. value one can be exposed to. The Egyptian Ministry of Housing and Urban Develop- ment [7] classified the following noise levels for residential 4. CURB EXPERIMENT areas measured outdoors: By studying characteristics of traffic in Greater Cairo, we assumed that road traffic noise levels in Greater Cairo

360 S. A. ALI and A. TAMURA: ANALYSIS OF ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE LEVEL AND CONTROL IN GREATER CAIRO

Table 4 Distribution of measured LAeq, 7{21 values per zone (land uses).

LAeq [dB] Residential Tourism Mixed Downtown Industrial No. of Local legislation location 55 55 60 65 70 [dB] (%)

55 < LAeq 60 —————— 2 60 < L 65 63.6 — 63.9 — — Aeq (8.7%) 4 65 < L 70 67.6 66.0 — 70.0 65.1 Aeq (17.5%) 74.0 71.8 73.1 — 70.6 5 70 < L 75 Aeq 72.6 — — — — (21.7%) 3 75 < L 80 79.3 — — 75.2 78.9 Aeq (13%) — 80.8 81.2 84.7 84.6 6 80 < L 85 — — — 83.0 — Aeq (26.1%) — — — 80.5 — 85.8 86.2 — — — 3 85 < L 90 Aeq 86.4 — — — — (13%) Location per 7435423 zone

LAeq was measured before and after curbs. Descriptions 95 of carrying out restrictions were as follows: . To study effect in the absence of horn. First day we 85.7 carried out measurements without any restrictions. 85 81.8 Next day at the same time, same place, approximately same composition of traffic, we demand from drivers 72.9 75 not using horns by putting many obvious big signs in place of measurement, and we carry out measure- 66.0 ments for case in the absence of horns. 65 . To study effect in the absence of horns together with Road traffic noise levels, dB noise levels, Road traffic limiting the commercial vehicles (vehicles that carry 55 materials and products of industrial area) to 10%. First HW RT CL LO day we carried out measurements without any Types of roads restrictions, and calculated number of commercial vehicles. Next day at the same time, same place, 10% of commercial vehicles were forbidden to pass in this Fig. 4 Mean LAeq7{21 values per type of roads, highways (3 roads): 85.7 dB; arterial roads (8 roads): 81.8 dB; road by help of traffic administration, we demand collector roads (6 roads): 72.9 dB; local roads (6 from drivers not using horns by putting many obvious roads): 66 dB. big signs in place of measurement, and we carry out measurements for case in the absence of horns were too high due to many reasons [3,4]. The aims of this together with limiting the commercial vehicles to experiment are to investigate the effect of these reasons on 10%. road traffic noise level, and to evaluate how many are the . To study effect in the absence of horns and trucks. reduction of road traffic noise level when carrying out First day we carried out measurements without any every type of curb in every land uses. In this experiment we restrictions. Next day at the same time, same place, carried out curbs about some of these reasons as mitigation trucks were forbidden to pass in this road by help of strategies to try to decrease road traffic noise levels. Also to traffic administration, we demand from drivers not know how the town planner can use various strategies to using horns by putting many obvious big signs in change the traffic composition in order to achieve quieter place of measurement, and we carry out measure- city environments. ments for case in the absence of horns and trucks.

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. To study effect in the absence of horns, trucks and movement served by two sidewalks on either of the road, buses. First day we carried out measurements without each 4 m wide, as El-Gash street with width 20 m, Abdel any restrictions. Next day at the same time, same Aziz street with width 20 m, and Obera Street with width place, trucks and buses were forbidden to pass in this 25 m, either of them accommodating 1,000 vehicles an road by help of traffic administration, we demand hour on the inside lane during the peak traffic hour, a from drivers not using horns by putting many obvious mixture of taxis, privates cars, bikes, minibuses, buses and big signs in place of measurement, and we carry out a few trucks. measurements for case in the absence of horns, trucks 4.1.4. Industrial area and buses. The site chosen to represent the industrial land use is Measurements of restrictions were taken at rush hours located in Hulwan a major industrial suburb to the south 13:00–16:00 only. This experiment was carried out in six east of Greater Cairo. The location for field measurement sites represent four different land uses as follows: was along Hulwan Street. The road is multi-lane divided highway, 25 m wide, accommodating 550 vehicles an hour 4.1. Site description on the inside lane during the peak traffic hour, of which 40 Various types of site were selected—a residential area, percent are trucks, truck/trailer combination and pick-up a tourism area, a downtown area, and an industrial area. A trucks. brief description of each site is given below. 4.1.1. Residential area 4.2. Results of Curbs One sites were selected to represent residential land Curbs were introduced to improve environmental use, located along Sallah Salm Street, a main arterial road, conditions as: absence of horns, absence of horns and two-ways, 55 m wide, separated by green island with wide trucks, and absence of horns, trucks and buses. LAeq before 15 m, every way with wide 15 m, pedestrians movement and after curbs were measured. Table 5 shows maximum served by two sidewalk on either side of the road, each 5 m LAeq, 10 min [dB] at rush hours 13:00–16:00 before and after wide. It connects between the collector roads from the curbs in Greater Cairo, Egypt. center of the city and highway road located out side of As shown in Table 5, in the absence of horns, LAeq Greater Cairo. The traffic flowing along the road is mixture decreased at all sites. The maximum reductions of 9.4 dB of private cars, taxis, minibuses, buses and a few trucks, and 10.8 dB occurred in the downtown area, Ramsis Street accommodating 1,500 vehicles an hour on the inside lane and El-Attaba Square, respectively, where there are no during the peak traffic hour. buses. With larger sidewalks, pedestrians will not walk in 4.1.2. Tourism area the street and motorists will not abuse the use of horns. The site chosen to represent the tourism land use is El- Number of horns before curbs ranged from 15 to 30 every Haram area in the south west of Greater Cairo city. The 10 minutes in the period of measurements. location for field measurement was along El-Haram Street. A considerable decrease of 4.8 dB in LAeq was achieved The road is a multi-lane divided Arterial Street, two-ways in Hulwan Street in the industrial area, during the street, 40 m wide, accommodating 800 vehicles an hour on measurements when the horns were omitted, and a decrease the inside lane during the peak traffic hour, of which 30 of 7.6 dB was achieved in the absence of horns together percent are trucks and buses. with limiting the commercial vehicles to 10%. Number of 4.1.3. Downtown area horns before curbs ranged from 10 to 15 every 10 minutes Three sites were selected to represent downtown areas. in the period of measurements. The first site selected was Dokki Square intersection of Omitting buses from residential area and downtown major roads, two traffic ways, as El-Tahrir street with area gave a further reduction in LAeq varying between 2.6 to width 25 m, El-Dokki street with width 25 m, all of them 3.7 dB at Sallah Salm (in residential area) and Dokki with pedestrian movement served by two sidewalks on Square (in downtown area), respectively. The reduction is either of the road, each 4 m wide, accommodating 900 mainly dependent upon the number of these buses presently vehicles an hour on the inside lane during the peak traffic in operation at each site [2]. Buses represented 30% of hour, a mixture of taxis, privates, bikes, and buses. The numbers of vehicles. second site was along Ramsis Street, one-way street. 25 m In the absence of horns, trucks and buses, LAeq wide, its inside lane carrying 1,200 vehicles during the decreased at Sallah Salm (in residential area) and Dokki peak hour. It is a main shopping street with heavy Square (in downtown area) between 6.0 to 10.2 dB. Buses pedestrian movement served by two sidewalks on either represented 30% of numbers of vehicles. Number of horns of the road, each 3.5 m wide. The third site was chosen before curbs ranged from 10 to 25 every 10 minutes in the along El-Attaba Square, intersection of major roads with period of measurements. two ways. It is a main shopping area with heavy pedestrian So curbs as absence of horns, trucks, noisy buses and

362 S. A. ALI and A. TAMURA: ANALYSIS OF ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE LEVEL AND CONTROL IN GREATER CAIRO

Table 5 Maximum LAeq, 10 min [dB] at rush hours 13:00–16:00 before and after curbs in Greater Cairo, Egypt.

Residential Tourism Industrial Downtown area area area area Case study El- El- Sallah Salm Dokki Ramsis Hulwan Haram Attaba Street Square Street Street Street Square Without curbs 87.9 88.9 87.1 84.9 87.8 86.2 In the absence of 85.2 84.4 80.7 75.5 77.0 81.4 horns In the absence of horns together with limiting the — — — — — 78.6 commercial vehicles to 10% In the absence of 84.5 80.4 80.6 — — — horns and trucks In the absence of horns, trucks and 81.9 — 76.9 — — — buses

Table 6 Egyptian noise standards and policy about the maximum permissible limit for LAeq [dB] in different land use areas [7].

Permissible limit for LAeq in dB Type of area Day Evening Night From To From To From To Commercial, administrative and 55 65 50 60 45 55 downtown areas Residential areas in which can be found some workshops or commercial 50 60 45 55 40 50 establishments or located on a main road Residential areas in the city 45 55 40 50 35 45 Residential suburbs with low traffic 40 50 35 45 30 40 Residential rural areas, hospitals and 35 45 30 40 25 35 gardens Industrial areas (heavy industries) 60 70 55 65 50 60

Day: from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Evening: from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Night: from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. limiting the commercial vehicles can decrease road traffic shown in Tables 3 and 4 with Egyptian statutory standards noise level in the city as shown above and this depend on regulations shown in Table 6 we find that road traffic noise how much these curbs. level in Greater Cairo are higher than those set by Egyptian environmental law to protect public health and welfare in 5. EGYPTIAN NOISE STANDARD AND residential areas. LAeq ¼ 80 dB and higher were recorded, POLICY while maximum permissible level is 65 dB. The president, as one of the highlights of a major 6. CONCLUSION AND REMARKS national policy has charged the Ministry of Environment to institute Egyptian environmental law Number 4 of year Measurements taken for road traffic noise levels in 1994 and its Executive Regulation. It determined the Greater Cairo, indicates that noise levels in the city were maximum permissible limit for noise intensity in different higher than those set by Egyptian noise standards and areas as shown in Table 6 [7]. policy to protect public health and welfare in residential By comparing road traffic noise levels in Greater Cairo areas.

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About 91.3% of the locations measured in this study . In the absence of horns, trucks and noisy buses, show during the day their LAeq were over 65 dB, the limit reductions in LAeq ranged between 6.0 to 10.2 dB. So for preventive medicine. Over seventy percent (73.8%) of curbs as absence of horns, trucks, noisy buses and the locations measured show during the day high values of limiting the commercial vehicles can decrease road LAeq were over 70 dB. (52.1%) of the locations measured traffic noise level in the city as shown above and this show during the day high values of LAeq were over 75 dB. depend on how much these curbs. A widely accepted scientific fact is that living in ‘‘black . This shows that the town planner can use various acoustics zones,’’ where LAeq were higher than 65 dB, put strategies to change the traffic composition in order to an urban population in a high risk category for numerous achieve quieter city environments. noise subjective effects, including psychological, sleep, and behavioral disorders. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LAeq were 75.6 dB, in tourism area was 76.2 dB, in The authors are grateful to Yokohama National Uni- mixed area was 72.7 dB, in downtown area was 78.7 dB, in versity for supplying a precision sound level meter type industrial area was 74.8 dB. So downtown area was the ONO SOKKI LA-5120, and digital printer, type ONO noisiest area. SOKKI RO-110. Traffic administration of Greater Cairo LAeq in highways (road No. 1) were 85.7 dB, in arterial city for helping us to carry out restrictions. This study was roads (road No. 2) were 81.8 dB, collector roads (road No. financially supported by The Egyptian Ministry of Higher 3) were 72.9 dB, and in local roads (road No. 4) were Education. 66 dB. So L in all kinds of roads in Greater Cairo were Aeq REFERENCES higher than 65 dB. Curbs were introduced to improve environmental [1] S. Ali and A. Tamura, ‘‘Diagnostic study for traffic noise problems in Greater Cairo, Egypt,’’ Proc. inter-noise, 2001, conditions as: (i) absence of horns, (ii) absence of horns pp. 1177–1181 (2001). and trucks, (iii) absence of horns, trucks and noisy buses. [2] Reports of Minster of Egyptian Transportation about road traffic LAeq before and after curbs was measured. Results of this in Greater Cairo, Al-Ahram Newspaper (Egyptian Newspaper), study showed that:— 1, 18, 2001 and 6, 28, 2001 (2001). [3] S. Ali and A. Tamura, ‘‘Road traffic & traffic noise problems in . In the absence of horns, L decreased at all sites. Aeq Greater Cairo, Egypt: Characteristics, countermeasure taken and The maximum reductions of 9.4 dB and 10.8 dB future plans,’’ Proc, 17th Int. Congr. Acoustics (2001). occurred in the downtown area, where there are no [4] S. Ali and A. Tamura, ‘‘Road traffic noise problems in Greater buses or commercial vehicles. With larger sidewalks, Cairo, Egypt and future mitigation measures policies,’’ Proc. pedestrians will not walk in the street and motorists noise-con, 2001 (2001). [5] A. G. Sayed, ‘‘Number of vehicles in Greater Cairo’s roads with will not abuse the use of horns. using GPS,’’ Newspaper of Vehicles (Egyptian Newspaper), . A considerable decrease of 7.6 dB was achieved in the Aug. 2002 (2002). absence of horns together with limiting the commer- [6] T. J. Schultz, Community Noise Rating (Applied Science cial vehicles to 10%. Publishers, London and New York, 1982). [7] Egyptian environmental law No. 4 of year 1994, Egyptian Ministry of Environment, Cairo, Egypt (1994).

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