The ECODRIVE Project: controlling and managing traffic for reducing noise from private road transport.

In order to meet the current pressure from the European Commission on the Member States, in last decades, innovative solutions have been proposed to improve the sustainability of human activities on the territory. In this context, the ECODRIVE Project aims at reducing atmospheric pollution and noise generated by private road transport through the implementation of specific traffic management and control policies, which can encourage users towards more sustainable driving behaviours. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of these policies, and with the aim of focusing the analysis on the acoustic part of the project, the effects of some policies based on the application of increasingly restrictive speed limits were illustrated. The results showed how careful traffic management can guarantee environmental benefits. In the future, however, it will also be necessary to take into account the side effects of the application of these policies, such as the increase in travel times, which is one of the main disadvantages for road users.