Principles of controlling traffic noise : Solving a multi-objective decision problem

The main objectives for a government to control traffic noise are such as economic efficiency, a reasonable welfare distribution and acceptable noise standards. The instruments available for arriving at these objectives are traffic control, emission regulation and environment protection. This paper analyzes how to make trade-offs between such objectives and how to choose a combination of noise control instruments. Special attention is then made to one welfare distribution objective, namely the ‘polluters-pay-principle’. That principle demands using the vehicle tax to finance investments to protect environment. And in order to stimulate the development of less noisy vehicles such a tax has to be progressively increased for noisy cars. The analysis is demonstrated on the situation of Sweden where a differentiation of norms as well as of vehicle taxes is proposed.