Ericson M. Scorsim – Lawyer and consultant in Public Law; PhD in Public Law from USP; Author of the ebook Sustentabilidade Ambiental Acústica: Propostas Regulatórias para Cidades Livres de Ruídos Excessivos (2024), Amazon; Founder of the Anti-noise Environmental Monitor Association.
Sustainable urban development depends on environmentally and acoustically efficient public infrastructure. Noise pollution is the result of urban underdevelopment. For this reason, the urban passenger transportation sector, using fossil fuel engines, is one of the main sources of noise pollution. Excessive, unnecessary, and harmful noise disrupts one’s cognition, and affects the digestive, endocrine, sleep, and nervous systems, among others. Noise pollution is incompatible with sustainable urban development, and it is a symptom of urban underdevelopment in cities.
There are international standards to ensure environmental health, well-being, and environmental comfort. Cities must adopt better management in the public passenger transportation service in order to benefit the population. It is unacceptable that a public service is inefficient and inadequate and causes degradation of the environmental sound quality. It is unacceptable that a public service does not meet public health and environmental health protection standards. It is unacceptable that the quality of life of residents near bus routes and bus terminals be degraded by environmental noise pollution from buses. According to the World Health Organization, the limit standard for noise emissions in traffic and transportation should be 53 dB (A) during the day and 45 dB (A) at night.
The World Health Organization analyses the harmful effects of daily noise pollution. Another point is the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations regarding sustainable cities and communities, and innovation, infrastructure, and industry. The UN Resolution No. 76 guarantees the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Therefore, it is essential that cities adopt an innovation program in urban traffic governance, prioritizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable city, free from noise pollution and excessive, unnecessary and harmful noise and the right to environmental health, environmental well-being and sound comfort, free from environmental noise pollution. This governance plan for urban passenger transportation by bus and environmental noise sustainability must consider: objectives, indicators, and results to eliminate and reduce noise pollution. Public policies and regulations should include Noise maps, environmental noise education programs, and the use of technological innovations to monitor noise pollution, such as: acoustic radars, and artificial intelligence, among others. It is essential to update the legislation to incorporate the environmental health protection standard defined by the World Health Organization for traffic and transit, which is 53 dB (A) during the day and 45 dB (A) at night. Cities urgently need to adopt governance plans for urban passenger public transportation, integrating urban, traffic, environmental, health, and educational policies. Significant investments should be made to update environmental police powers and police powers to address noise pollution. Environmental compensation measures should be formulated to compensate residential and commercial areas impacted by noise pollution from circulating buses and bus terminals. Terminals and bus routes should be designed with measures to isolate noise emissions. Another point is to accelerate fleet renewal programs with the incorporation of electric buses, which are more sound and energy efficient. Tires should also have maximum noise absorption. And the asphalt paving of the streets where buses circulate should be highly efficient in absorbing noise and heat. In the context of public law in Brazil, the independence of transportation regulatory agencies must be guaranteed to avoid the risk of being captured by the interests of urban transportation licenced companies. Contracts must incorporate noise emission control standards for the transportation sector, observing the limit of 53 dB (A) for the daytime and 45 dB (A) for the nightime. The sustainable future of cities depends on public transportation governance programs to eliminate, reduce, and isolate noise pollution from buses.
Crédito de imagem: Google
