The Schultz curve 25 years later: a research perspective

Abstract

The contemporary technical rationale for assessing effects ("impacts") of transportation noise on communities rests in large part on a purely descriptive dosage-effect relationship of the sort first synthesized by Schultz [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 64, 377-405 (1978)]. Although U.S. federal adoption of an annoyance-based rationale for regulatory policy has made this approach a familiar one, it is only one of several historical perspectives, and not necessarily the most useful for all purposes. Last reviewed by the U.S. Federal Interagency Committee on Noise (FICON) 10 years ago, the accuracy and precision of estimates of the prevalence of a consequential degree of noise-induced annoyance yielded by functions of noise exposure leave much to be desired. This tutorial article traces the development of the dosage-effect relationship on which FICON currently relies, in a wider historical context of efforts to understand and predict community response to transportation noise. It also identifies areas in which advances in genuine understanding might lead to improved means for predicting community response to transportation noise.