Understanding the Key Factors that Contribute to Road Traffic Noise and Sleep Comfort of Residents – Insights from Self-Reported and Objective Surveys in Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

Medical studies suggest that quality sleep/rest significantly reduces the risk of various psychological and physical ailments. Besides other leading factors, understanding the synergetic relationships between nature, traffic noise, and human wellbeing in urban landscapes is something of paramount interest and attention. This study hypothesizes that the distance between a house and a major roadway and the number of trees (height > 10 feet) in a house may relate to the sleep or rest annoyance not only directly but also through maximum traffic noise recorded at a house. A survey was designed and conducted in Peshawar City (Pakistan) for 120 randomly selected houses and corresponding residents. Most residences (88.33%) had maximum traffic noise above 55 dBs, indicating higher exposure. Path analysis was applied including multiple linear regression and ordered Probit models to estimate the maximum traffic noise and sleep/rest annoyance, respectively. The findings revealed that more trees and larger distances from roadways reduce both traffic noise and sleep/rest annoyance. The two variables were also found to have interactive effects on both traffic noise and sleep annoyance. Results of the path analysis revealed that the overall effects of the number of trees in a house (-3.989%) and distance between house and roadway (-0.549%) on the sleep/rest being strongly/extremely annoyed is significantly higher than their direct effects (-2.103% and -0.314%, respectively). Such relationships can be explored via rigorous path analysis and not standard models. Practical implications are discussed in the paper.