DISCUSSION

Traffic noise study is vital for designing engineering element such as highway road,
pavement design, barrier design and environmental study. Regarding to the figure 1, it shows
the recorded data of noise sound at the particular location. The chosen location was at Jalan
Ilmu where it is located in front of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, UiTM Shah Alam. On
the other hand, the range value of noise sound for this study is 30 dBA for minimum to 130
dBA for maximum value. The study also has being observed for 60 numbers of data in such
duration for 30 minutes at 30 seconds interval.

Generally, the apparatus used in this study is noise level meter and a stopwatch. The
noise level meter will results in the value of noise reading in the unit of dB(A). The meaning
of dB stands for decibel and is a unit of sound measurement, which measures the loudness of
sound of a signal. Although dB is commonly used to measure sound, humans do not hear all
frequency easily, as the human ear is less sensitive at low frequencies that at high audio
frequencies. In order to account this, different weightings have been created to give a
loudness measurement that takes into account how human ear actually perceives sound. The
most common of these weightings is the “A” weighting which system are shown using units
of dB(A).

The n-percent exceeded level, Ln, is the sound pressure level exceeded for n percent
of the time. L10 is the noise level exceeded for 10% of the time of the measurement duration.
For the rest of the time, the sound or noise has a sound pressure level at or below L10. These
higher sound pressure levels are probably due to sporadic or intermittent road traffic. From
Figure 1.3 of the percent cumulative curve, value of L10 is 84.45 dbA. Noises during the test
were mainly from cars, motorcycles, tractors and busses. As the test was conducted at 2.30pm
to 3.30pm, highest noise frequency is ranged from 75 to 79.9 dbA according to Figure 1.2.

As per rules, the prescribed highest limit of noise levels for residential localities is 55
decibels during the day and 45 decibels during the night. For silence zones, the level is 50
and 40 (during the day and the night respectively). Meanwhile, for the industrial area, the
permissible noise level is 75 and 70 decibels. Lastly, for commercial area is 65 and 55
decibels respectively.
Universities, colleges, schools, libraries, national laboratories and hospitals come
under Silent Zone. It may be mentioned that these are buildings that require on average quiet
conditions but are also at the same time noise sources at certain times, for example student
movement in universities. In the first instance, efforts should be made to find a site that is
situated in a comparatively quiet environment. At least the site should be away from the noisy
roads and rail tracks, due attention shall need to be paid to the layout of the rooms and
facilities.
Adequate open space should be left between the building and the roads which is the
source of noise. The rooms shall be arranged to be farther away from the noise source, while
other building of the university closer to it and in a manner to provide a noise shield to the
class. An almost quiet environment is needed for the students to be focused in class.
REFERENCES
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/80/1/012053/pdf
https://www.castlegroup.co.uk/guidance/environmental-noise/percentile-levels/
https://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/noise_education/web/ENG_EPD_HTML/m2/types_3.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3531357/
http://www.environment.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/575015/Residential-Noise-
in-residential-areas-141015-BM-reduced-size.pdf