Long-term, challenging standards to reduce noise from vehicles
Traffic noise is the most widespread environmental problem in the European Union, we therefore welcome the European Commission’s revision of the existing Vehicle Noise directive (70/157/EEC) adopting tighter noise emission limits for vehicles.There is strong evidence noise effects the health of one in three EU citizens and that steps to tacklenoise from vehicles, including the tyres, are overwhelming cost effective (research showing benefits outweigh costs by more than 30 times). Accordingly, we urge the European Parliament and Council to agree a package of amendments to the Directive that strength the Commission’sproposal (2011/0409 COD) by
1. Accelerating the introduction of the revised standards, with step 1 to be enforced in 2013 andstep 2 in 2015
2. Setting out a pathway for further noise reductions, by introducing a further step to enter intoforce in 2020 that achieves a significant further reduction in noise from vehicles
3. Ensuring testing is representative of real world noise emissions
4. Requiring information on vehicle noise to be publicly available; and
5. Introducing stricter limits for highly intrusive peak levels of noise
støy-Joint Declaration FINAL.
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