The aim of this thesis is to investigate the economic and social impacts of main road traffic noise through an investigation of residential house prices in Sydney during the period 1968-1980 and by means of household questionnaires. A survey-control area comparison technique which utilises study areas abutting main roads and control streets sufficiently distant from main roads not to be affected by them, is used to examine differences in mean annual house prices and long-run growth trends of

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... se prices in nine study areas. The relative importance of main road traffic noise in main roads and control streets was identified by multiple regression analysis, and a household questionnaire enabled investigation of the effects on residential populations of exposure to main road traffic noise. The general conclusions of this study are that main road externalities contributed to differences in mean house prices between main roads and control streets during the periods 1968-69, 1973-74 and 1977-80, and to the significant difference in the growth trends of house prices in main roads and control streets. Main road traffic noise is a significant but minor determinant of house prices, accounting for three per cent of the variation in house prices on main roads and just one per cent on control streets. The majority of main road residents find main road traffic noise disagreeable, and actions designed to reduce the immediate impact of noise provided the best indicator of annoyance. Residential characteristics and indicators of activity interruption are not useful identifiers of those residents who are more sensitive to main road traffic noise. * significant at .10 probability level. ** "t"-statistic not calculated because sample size is small. *** significant at .01 probability level. i * significant at .10 probability level . ** significant at . 05 probability level. *** significant at .01 probability level.