8–12 Sept 2026
Europe/Vienna timezone

Traffic Noise Perception Assessment for Traffic Management: An Empirical Study Based on Facial Action Units

FA2026/79
10 Sept 2026, 09:20
20m
Saal 1 (Messe Congress Graz)

Saal 1

Messe Congress Graz

A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being A18.00 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being

Speaker

Xuejun Hu (Harbin Institute of Technology)

Description

As traffic noise has become a major source of noise in urban public spaces, key traffic factors such as vehicle speed and honking patterns have been shown to have a significant impact on people’s perception of their environment; consequently, more refined measurement and research methods are required to support relevant traffic management. This paper proposes a method for measuring the perception of traffic noise using Action Units (AUs) based on facial expression recognition (FER), and conducts perception experiments to investigate the effects of vehicle speed and honking patterns. The results show that medium- to high-speed traffic noise significantly reduces valence (by 0.04–0.10), whilst low-speed traffic noise has no significant effect; when foreground horn sounds were introduced, the initial decrease in valence was similar across conditions, whilst the subsequent recovery following the cessation of the horn varied between 0.06 and 0.14 across different patterns. This methodology and its findings help to elucidate the non-verbal emotional responses triggered by traffic noise and provide a basis for refined traffic management measures, such as speed control and horn usage regulation.

Authors

Xuejun Hu (Harbin Institute of Technology) Qi Meng (Harbin Institute of Technology) Da Yang (Harbin Institute of Technology) Mengmeng Li (Harbin Institute of Technology) Wanshi Jiang (Shenhe District Market Supervision Administration)

Presentation materials