Where we go from here to engineer a quieter America

摘要

To engineer a quieter America requires action by engineers in private industry, consultingfirms, government, academe, and professional societies. Public pressure must also be adriving force. Interactions with government agencies, including regulatory bodies, arenecessary to develop a comprehensive national noise policy. The National Academies Presspublished the Technology for a Quieter America (TQA) consensus report in 2010 withtwenty-eight recommendations, many of them addressed to federal regulatory agencies.The TQA report was prepared by a committee of the National Academy of Engineering(NAE). The TQA Follow-up Team of the NAE is targeting specific recommendations forimplementation and has organized three successful workshops to date on motorcycle noise,quiet pavements or barriers, and quiet manufacturing facilities of the future. All were heldin National Academies’ facilities. Each of the workshops brought together the principalstakeholders on the issue including regulatory authorities, trade associations, manufacturers,and representatives of the public. The workshop reports include recommendations tospecific regulatory bodies for carrying out the recommendations of the TQA report.Workshops currently in the planning stage target progress on consumer and industrialproduct noise reduction, the noise reductions of the U.S. Department of Transportationmodal agencies, and U.S. Department of Defense noise issues. The TQA team’s model ofthe TQA report followed by workshops, reports, and recommendations on specific subjectsrepresents a realistic approach for engineering a quieter America for future generations.