Reducing transport noise

THE HEALTH AND LIFE QUALITY OF MORE THAN  70 MILLION EU CITIZENS ARE PUT AT STAKE BY HARMFUL NOISE LEVELS FROM ROAD, RAIL AND AIRCRAFT

THE CURRENT SITUATION

EU legislation is currently divided into transport aspects (reducing noise at the source) and environmental policy (passive protection). The Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC) already requires Member States to draw up noise maps and adopt action plans, but these are often of poor quality and incompatible with each other.

Road noise:

» Limits for noise emissions from road vehicles are not strict enough
» Regulation on labelling of tyres is too vague

Rail freight noise:

» Strict standards for new wagons exist
» Co-funding for retrofi tting of noisy wagons is possible

Aircraft noise:

» There is no lack of resources: airlines annually receivesubsidies worth €30 billion as they are exempted from the kerosene tax and (on international fl ights) fromvalue-added tax
» EU efforts to reduce aircraft noise are under high pressure from airlines and the US administration

(...)