Quel rôle joue la perception individuelle?

How people react to noise and how they perceive it is a complex issue and can vary from person to person – what’s annoying to one person may be acceptable to another.

While an Airbus A320 flying overhead may generate the same decibel level as a vacuum cleaner approximately five metres away, the aircraft may seem more annoying to a person because one expects to hear the vacuum’s noise and is therefore willing to accept it. Similarly, quieter noises that occur frequently may be considered as annoying as infrequent, louder noises.

Repetition

There are distinct flight paths in and out of Toronto Pearson that all airplanes follow. This means that people who live under the flight path experience repeated occurrences of airplane noise. You could compare this to a dog barking next door – it’s not ear-shatteringly loud, but the constant repetition can become annoying.

Time of day

People are more sensitive to airplane noise depending on what they’re doing, and that has a lot to do with when the noise is being experienced.

Most of the airplane noise experienced by people on the ground is unavoidable. These noise levels can change from day to day based on the air traffic at the airport or the weather-dictated operation planes are following.