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Press Release

Status of Motor Vehicle Traffic Noise in FY 2003

March 29, 2005

Ministry of the Environment compiled a report on the current status of motor vehicle traffic noise based on the result of the constant monitoring of motor vehicle traffic noise conducted in FY 2003.

1.Current status of constant monitoring of motor vehicle traffic noise

As for the constant monitoring of motor vehicle traffic noise, prefectures and cities designated under the Noise Regulation Law are to monitor and report the status of motor vehicle traffic noise to the Ministry of the Environment.

Based on the monitoring data in FY 2003, assessment on the achievement of environmental quality standard was conducted for 2.395 million houses located along roads with total length of 12,073km* (538km of expressways, 22km of urban expressways, 4,819km of national roads, 5,770km of prefectural roads, 835km of municipal roads with more than 4 lanes and 90km of other roads). The figures indicate 20% increase for both number of houses and road length. Houses subject to the assessment should be located within the range of 50m from roadside.

*    Numbers may not add up to the total figure due to rounding.

2.Achievement status of environmental quality standard

(1) General assessment
Out of 2.395 million houses assessed, 1.933 million houses (80.7% of the total houses assessed) met the standard during both the daytime (6am to 10am) and the night time (10pm to 6am), while 440 thousand houses (18.4%) exceeded the standard during the night time. Out of 1.016 million houses located in the area bordering trunk roads, 709 thousand houses met the standard during both daytime and night time, while 290 thousand houses (28.6 %) exceeded the standard during the night time. Trend in achievement status of the environmental quality standard remains flat.

(2) Status by road type
Assessment of achievement conducted by road type shows that the ratio of the achievement of the environmental quality standard both during the daytime and the night time is most high in municipal roads with more than 4 lanes.

Information on the status of motor vehicle traffic noise is available (in Japanese ) on the web site "Motor Vehicle Noise Map" administered by the National Institute for Environmental Studies.


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