The footprint of different transport systems usually comes down to information about CO2 emissions.2 and NOx. And “noise pollution” seems to be a minor issue. The battle against noise is of course ongoing, but there is no holistic approach to the problem.
Meanwhile, traffic noise is not only annoying, but also harmful to human and animal health, especially that of highways. There is a lot of evidence that it has a negative effect not only on humans, but also on wildlife. For example, the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology recently announced that traffic noise prevents birds from learning to sing!
The vocal development of birds from noisy areas lagged far behind: Their vocal skills developed 30% later than in the control group, and trills had significantly lower sounding accuracy compared to the reference, scientists reported in the journal Science.
To solve the noise problem, specialists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Strength and System Reliability in Darmstadt (Germany) and the Austrian Highway and Autobahn Finance Corporation have developed a glass noise barrier equipped with vibro-acoustic metamaterials (BAMM). With this sophisticated design, they have been able to achieve a reduction in sound transmission of up to 20 dB (quiet whisper level) in the laboratory, which is incomparably better than with a conventional noise barrier.
Without going into the complex descriptions of the design that scientists give, we just note that with BAMMs you can influence the sound of running cars in this way. that it is not transmitted or deflected by the soundproofing wall, but is almost completely absorbed by it.
In the near future, scientists will test a prototype of such a super-noise screen on highways.