I was eating lunch in an outdoor seating area near a rather noisy freeway and decided to do a ground truth "traffic noise" test with Autodesk Forma.
Learn about the process and the results in this post.
POE
At Lake|Flato, we like to do post-occupancy evaluations (POE) when the opportunity presents itself. We recently spent two days at a new school we designed in Houston, taking all sorts of readings. For our own office remodel, we are using KieranTimberlake's Roast tool to survey perceived occupant comfort. Learn more about POE at Lake|Flato by clicking here.
Traffic Noise Test Location
I was having lunch near 1604 and Culebra in San Antonio, Texas. I noticed the noise from the traffic was pretty loud and decided to take a decibel reading with my Apple Watch (which is a very accurate reading - see this study for more info).
Here is a video I created highlighting the noise reading and the noise:
TxDOT Data
The Texas DOT website lists the average daily traffic (ADT) numbers in the area. The numbers are enormous... over 150k vehicles per day in and around this intersection.
The Forma Test
I decided to do a ground truth (empirical evidence) test and see if Forma would give me the same numbers. I started a new Forma project in this area of the city. The speed limits are populated, but the ADT numbers do not typically appear automatically. So, I edited the base model and entered the ADT numbers from the TxDOT site shown above (I divided the 80k between the two freeway directions).
Here is the initial AI-generated view of the traffic noise. The color on the legend below appears to be about right... at 72 dB.
I then ran a full traffic noise analysis simulation, and the results were perfect! Click to enlarge the iamge.
This is super helpful to know. Next time I am in the area, I need to take another reading behind the building as well:)
For BIM Chapters updates, connect on LinkedIn
Lighting design professionals: check out my Revit & ElumTools training https://bit.ly/3NJjhCV
