A comparison of subjective responses to simultaneous traffic-induced vibration and noise in buildings between Japanese and Vietnamese participants

Vibration and noise are the major environmental problems and the main causes of many adverse effects on the living environment. Up to now, only a few studies have compared the subjective responses due to simultaneous vibration and noise in buildings induced by traffic between two different national participants. This paper investigated the subjective responses to simultaneous vibration and noise with two groups of participants: Japanese and Vietnamese who were studying in Japan. They were exposed to 31 stimuli consisting of six levels of noise and five magnitudes of vibration from conventional and high-speed Shinkansen railways, and road traffic. They were asked to rate their levels of discomfort on a seven-ordinal scale. Finally, the difference between the two groups of participants in subjective responses to combined exposures was shown.