Objective ES.5 Maintain safe levels of community noise

Indicators, Development Targets and Policies/Design Strategies

Indicators Development Targets Policies/Design Strategies
Primary
a. Average daytime and nighttime outdoor noise levels

Benchmark: Is the project consistent with the SF General Plan's noise-land use compatibility guidance AND where ambient noise levels are >60 Ldn do residential projects mitigate interior noise levels? 

Regulatory Minimum: Projects must comply with Section 2909 (a-d), San Francisco Police Code, for exterior and interior noise levels and mitigate excessive noise levels consistent with Title 24, Part 2, Volume 1, Section 1207 of the California Building Code. 

  • Adequately maintain City-owned vehicles and travel surfaces to minimize noise.1,2
  • Retain and expand the electric trolley network.3,4
  • Require construction standards exceeding California Title 24 noise insulation requirements through the use of noise-insulating windows and acoustical exterior doors and walls.5,6
  • Reduce traffic speeds on adjacent residential streets through traffic calming measures (especially traffic circles, semi-diverters, and diagonal diverters).7,8
  • If noise is greater than 65 decibels, notify all potential buyers that the property they are occupying has significant noise risks.9,10
  • Design units exposed to high noise levels with interior courtyards and patios that open into acoustically protected and shielded areas.11
  • Incorporate noise insulation materials in new construction, especially near busy roadways or industrial uses.12,13
  • Promote site planning, building orientation and design, and interior layout that will lessen noise intrusion.14
  • Use feasible traffic demand management actions such as transit and intersection improvements, traffic calming, congestion pricing, carpool lanes, and rideshare programs.15,16

Health-based Rationale

  • Noise can be detrimental to health with respect to hearing impairment, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular effects, psycho-physiologic effects, psychiatric symptoms, and fetal development.17-18
  • A chronic environmental stressor - road traffic or aircraft noise - could impair cognitive development in children, such as reading comprehension, speech intelligibility, memory, motivation, attention, problem-solving, and performance on standardized tests.19
  • Reductions of noise by 6-14 dBA results in subjective and objective improvements in sleep.20
  • Sleep disturbances have been associated with a variety of health problems, such as functional impairment, medical disability, and utilization of treatment. Sleep difficulties are also associated with increased use of medical services even among those with no previous health problems.21

Established Standards

  1. The Environmental Protection Agency identifies a 24-hour exposure level of 70 decibels as the level of environmental noise which will prevent any measurable hearing loss over a lifetime. Likewise, levels of 55 decibels outdoors and 45 decibels indoors are identified as preventing activity interference and annoyance. These levels of noise are considered those which will permit spoken conversation and other activities such as sleeping, working and recreation, which are part of the daily human condition.22

  2. San Francisco General Plan. Environmental Protection Element. Objective 11: Promote Land Uses that are compatible with various transportation noise levels. For more information, visit: http://www.sfgov.org/site/planning_index.asp?id=41417.

1. Austrian Ministry of Science and Transport and the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF). Low Noise Roads. http://info.tuwien.ac.at/epucher/LN_R_eng.htm
2. Green Pages. Silent Roads for Cost Effective Noise Reduction. http://www.eco-web.com/edi/index.htm
3. SF Municipal Transportation Agency. Electric Trolley Buses. http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfleet/trolley.htm
4. Market Street Railway. Vision for the E Line. http://www.streetcar.org/msr/projects/vision/index.html
5. CA Energy Commission. http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/
6. Architectural acoustics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_acoustics
7. Institute of Transportation Engineers: Traffic Calming Measures http://www.ite.org/traffic/tcdevices.asp
8. City of Portland, Office of Transportation. Speed Reduction Traffic Calming Devices. http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=38748
9. Arizona Department of Real Estate, Buyer Advisory. http://www.aaronline.com/documents/buy_advis.pdf
10. Oak to Ninth Avenue Health Impact Assessment Chapter 7 Community Noise. http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu/hia/O2N.HIA.C7.pdf
11. NYC High Performance Building Guidelines. http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/downloads/pdf/guidelines.pdf
12. CA Energy Commission. http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/
13. Architectural acoustics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_acoustics
14. City of New York, Department of Design and Construction. High Performance Building Guidelines. http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/downloads/pdf/guidelines.pdf
15. Victoria Transport Policy Institute: TDM Encyclopedia http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm12.htm
16. European Federation for Transport and Environment. Transport Noise Sources and Solutions. http://www.transportenvironment.org/module-htmlpages-display-pid-19.html
17. Historical Note about Recommended Lighting Levels. International Dark-Sky Association. Newsletter No. 22. October 1994.
18. Stansfeld S, Haines M, Brown B. Noise and health in the urban environment. Rev Environmental Health, 2000 Vol15(1-2): 43-82
19. Stansfeld SA, Berglund, B, Clark C, et al. Aircraft and road traffic noise and children's cognition and health: a cross-national study. The Lancet, June 4-10, 2005, Vol. 365 (9475): 1942-49
20. London Health Commission. 2003. Noise and Health: Making the Link. Available at: http://www.londonshealth.gov.uk/pdf/noise_links.pdf
21. Morh D, Vedantham K, Neylan T, Metzler TJ, Best S, Marmar CR. 2003. The medicating effects of sleep in the relationship between traumatic stress and health symptoms in urban police officers. Psychosomatic Medicine 65:485-489.
22. Environmental Protection Agency. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/noise/01.htm