GLC is spending
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
on noise research
THE GREATER London Council has begun to spend some of the £100,000 which it has budgeted (CM May 19 and May 26) for research into how goods vehicles used in the capital city may be made quieter.
Sound Research Laboratories of Sudbury, Suffolk, has been contracted by the GLC to evaluate four in-service vehicles and report on practical means of reducing their noise emissions.
The first vehicle, a 1976 Guy 8J6 powered by a fixed-head Leyland 500 series engine, was delivered to the laboratory last week. Its drive-by noise level, tested at a nearby disused airfield, according to the current EEC test procedure for new vehicles, was found to be 88dB(A) — surprisingly not above the current EEC limit for new vehicles of its class.
The GLC hopes that in the week that Sound Research Laboratories has the vehicle it will be able to find a relatively inexpensive means of reducing that by at least 2dB(A). The council's transport committee has already said that it believes that effective noise reducing kits, including engine shielding, for example, could be made available at a cost of less than £500 each.
The Freight Transport Asso ciation and the Department of Transport disagree with the GLC's estimate (the FTA puts a figure of £1,500 to £2,000 each on the so-called hush kits).
Furthermore, they disagree with the principle of any local authority applying its own noise limits.
A number of vehicle manufacturers also have recently expressed concern with the possibility of being faced with noise limits other than those of the EEC. At a recent I Mech E conference Ron Mellor of Ford said of a Dutch scheme of vehicle excise duty incentives for vehicles which are quieter than the statutory limit: "the idea horrifies me."
However, the GLC, while not wishing to impose more stringent noise limits than those proposed by the EEC Commission, argues that it will take too long for these and the UK's QHV 90 project, to take effect on in-service vehicles.
The council proposes to introduce a permit scheme whereby those vehicles which do not meet its noise limits will not be allowed to operate in the GLC area.
The current EEC noise limit for a goods vehicle over 12 tonnes gvw and with a power rating over 200 hp is 88dB(A). The Commission proposal is that by October 1, 1989, all goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gvw should be below the 84dB(A) limit.