Traffic noise in the district of Ebersberg: Disturbing and harmful to health – Ebersberg

A look at the noise map: the dark-colored streets

act like a network of veins that runs through the district of Ebersberg and through which people and material can get from one point to the other. However, they always transport an undesirable by-product: noise.

Noise – defined as “undesirable sound”, as the professor for acoustics Bernhard Seeber from the Technical University of Munich explains – is by no means a new phenomenon. Many people suffer from noise pollution, it is a ubiquitous environmental problem. Studies associate chronic noise exposure with increased risks of cardiovascular diseases and depression, among other things. But what is the concrete reality of life for the people in the district who have to live, learn and work with the unwelcome noise? And what can be done?

One who can sing a song from the noise is Else Schmid. The 85-year-old native of Neufarn, whose real name is different, lives close to the A94. She feels the burden is “catastrophically bad”. Not only because there are no bushes growing on a bend in the freeway, which means that the sound waves break through the small town unchecked. “It’s particularly hard when the harvest is brought in.” From four o’clock in the morning the tractors drive through the village.

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She says that sleeping is then out of the question. The move to the former children’s room, which is away from the street, didn’t help either. One of the reasons why noise is harmful to health is because of the sleep disturbances it causes. In a 2011 report, the WHO found that sleep disorders accounted for half of the healthy years of life lost each year in Europe due to noise.

However, the noise pollution was not always so high, at least not for Else Schmid. She has lived in Neufarn since 1960, when there was not even a paved road. “There’s no comparison at all,” she says when she thinks of the Autobahn and the many Poingers who drive through Neufarn in the morning to avoid the traffic jam on the A94.

Above a certain decibel value, the body triggers a stress reaction

Angelika Richter has also observed how traffic has increased. The yoga teacher lives and works in Steinhöring, right next to the B 304, which pumps thousands of cars through town every day. “There are now more trucks driving from Traunstein to Munich,” reports Richter, who has been trying to find inner peace for herself and others since 1997 on the side of the road. The noise protection wall right in front of the front door only helps to a limited extent.

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At first she still hoped, according to Richter, that the street would disappear, i.e. be relocated. In the meantime, she is trying to simply hide the morning and evening rush-hour traffic, which is difficult. “You don’t get used to it,” says Richter. The background noise is too irregular.

She thus refers to the subjective component inherent in the perception of noise. “Noise can also be a dripping faucet if it is perceived as disturbing,” says Bernhard Seeber from TUM. Above a certain decibel value, however, the body triggers a stress response, even if the noise is perceived as not very disturbing, as explained in a 2016 report by the Federal Environment Agency. If the physiological response is still within limits at 55 decibels – the light orange color on the map – it is pronounced at 75 decibels and above – the blue color in the middle of the “veins”.

At the same level, the train is less disruptive than the road

Many places in the county are uncolorful in this way, but some are hit particularly hard. This also includes Kirchseeon, where the residents have to cope with the double burden of the B 304 and local tracks. Monika Riederer has lived right between these noise lanes since 1963.

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“Sitting on the terrace isn’t much fun anymore,” says Riederer. This is mainly due to motorcyclists and commuter traffic. And at night long freight trains roll past on the rails only a few hundred meters away. “I wake up sometimes,” she says. It also doesn’t help that there isn’t a noise barrier right now at this point and the southbound railway has been cut down.

She still finds the road to be significantly worse. This coincides with observations from research, as Bernhard Seeber from TUM reports: “At the same level, the train is perceived as less disruptive. This is at least partly due to the different sound of the cars.” The Riederers have come to terms with the noise as best they can. However, her son felt extremely burdened for a long time. “He hardly ever opened the window anymore,” says Riederer.

At the elementary and middle school in Kirchseeon, windows are closed whenever possible

This was possibly for his own good. According to the report by the Federal Environment Agency, noise also impairs the cognitive development of children. These are a “particularly vulnerable group” with continuous noise exposure. An example: learning to read at school. An increase in the “continuous noise level” by ten decibels “delays the acquisition of reading skills by one month”.

This is not good news for Franz Kraxenberger from the elementary and middle school in Kirchseeon. The noise pollution there has been “high to very high” for decades, as the headmaster says. As a result, the windows in the classrooms were mostly closed, especially in those “facing the B 304. You really can’t open a window there, it’s limitless,” says Kraxenberger. During the Corona peak phases, when airing, not only the cold but also the noise penetrated the rooms. It is difficult to determine what effect all this has on the students.

A speed limit is being discussed in Markt Schwaben

But what helps against the noise? What you shouldn’t set your hopes on too high: “The advantage that e-cars bring is not very big,” says Bernhard Seeber from TUM. “Especially over longer distances, rolling noise is a bigger problem than engine noise.” The turnaround in traffic towards more bicycles and public transport will only bring minor relief. The sound scale works logarithmically, which means that an increase or decrease of ten decibels is perceived as twice as loud or quiet. But even halving traffic would only save three decibels, according to Seeber.

Speed ​​limits could bring more. Again and again these are discussed for different places in the district, most recently for Kirchseeon. But even in the noisy market of Swabia, people are thinking about it, as Mayor Michael Stolze reports. Instead of the Autobahn, many drivers use the town as a thoroughfare out of habit. And many come by car to change to the train in Markt Schwaben.

“The subject has been neglected for a long time”

A test installation with a speed of 30 km/h was therefore set up near a school, and intelligent traffic lights are also being considered. “We are in the process of preparing a traffic report to find out what has the greatest effect,” says Stolze. How much does that really bring? Open. Stolze points out that the topic has been neglected in society as a whole and has been neglected for decades. “This is also due to the fact that the increase in noise pollution was a gradual process,” he says. The most important factor in noise abatement is the city design, confirms Bernhard Seeber.

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Most cities and communities have long been designed and noise protection has rarely been at the top of the agenda. At most, in the course of densification, there is now the possibility of taking noise seriously as an environmental problem that is harmful to health. With soundproof windows, earplugs and yoga serenity, Else Schmid, Angelika Richter and Monika Riederer – like so many others – try to keep calm so as not to suffer a traffic attack.