How quiet is your tire and why does this matter?

15. February 2020 Felix Schlatter Acoustics & noise protection
#Acoustics, #Expertise, #Quiet tyres, #Research, #Road noise

The dominant noise pattern on today’s roads is the tyre rolling noise while the engine noise is acoustically insulated. Every seventh person in Switzerland is exposed to excessive road noise, which makes people sick and is linked to high consequential socio-economic costs. This is the main reason why CEDR (Conference of European Directors of Roads) has initated the “Noise and nuisance” tender to make better use of the potential of quiet tires in the future.
Your personal benefit: quiet tyres also increase the interior driving comfort!

How quiet is your tire and why does this matter?

Grolimund + Partner won CEDR’s European tender and we are conducting research as of December 2019 to improve the impact of quiet tyres on European roads. The consortium consists of the Finnish tyre manufacturer NOKIAN and three European road research institutes: BRRC from Belgium, SINTEF from Norway and VTI from Sweden. The main objective of the STEER project (Strengthening the Effect of quieter tyres on European Roads) is to enhance the existing labelling system and to provide guidance to policy makers to implement the introduction of quiet tyres in their respective countries and to improve the impact on European roads.

To this end STEER will analyse the current labelling system with regards to its deficiencies and propose solutions to increase its reproducibility and representativity. STEER will also develop impact assessments and evaluations regarding effectivity of different scenarios to promote quiet tyres. STEER will provide EU bodies and national institutions with a selection of possible implementation pathways.

STEER hopes to provide a Europe-wide tyre labelling, which will provide consumer with “realistic” values of selected tyre noise emissions on European roads and will allow for an objective decision on purchase. STEER strives to harmonize tyre labelling and will give relevant institutions a tool to facilitate introduction of quiet tyres and to assess their effects on health and their socio-economic impacts.
 

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