A theory of patterns of passby noise

Some people say they are annoyed by traffic noise. There is rather a lot of evidence to show that where traffic noise is louder, more people say they are annoyed by it. On the basis of this sort of evidence, there is a consensus that road traffic noise causes annoyance, but some studies have detected unexplained peaks of annoyance in quieter places, or a plateau of annoyance in high noise. Such anomalies may especially affect those sensitive to noise. The pattern of alternation of passby noise and background traffic noise explains the positioning in soundspace of anomalies variously reported at 60 dB(A) L_eq, 4000 NV and 1800 NHV. Such anomalies occur where there are regular or rapidly alternating patterns of passby noise.