Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid

15.10.2025

What if, when choosing a route on Google Maps or reviewing your training on Strava, you could also know how much noise you've put up with? What if, beyond choosing the shortest or fastest route, you had the option of choosing the quietest? Thanks to a new tool developed by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), that possibility is getting closer.

A team of researchers from the UPM, led by César Asensio, professor at the UPM School of Telecommunications and System Engineering and member of the I2A2 research group – Instrumentación y Acústica Aplicada, developed and validated a methodology that allows us to estimate the exposure to urban traffic noise that we experience when moving around the city. Whether walking, cycling, or running, this tool—based on public data and acoustic models—allows us to estimate how much noise we bear depending on the route, the time of day, and the urban environment we travel through.

This breakthrough has been published in the scientific journal Elsevier´s Applied Acoustics under the title "A Methodological Framework for Urban Noise Exposure Assessment Exploiting Citizen Itineraries and Environmental Noise Maps."

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2025.111114

Unlike traditional noise exposure models, which focus almost exclusively on the place of residence, this new methodology adopts a much more realistic perspective: people's daily mobility. Because we don't spend our days locked up at home, but rather moving through very diverse environments. This tool makes it possible to quantify this acoustic exposure "on the move," something that until now could only be done using individual sensors.

How does it work? Using real routes, such as those generated by users on platforms like Strave or Wikiloc or simulated ones on platforms like Google Maps or Brouter, the system compares these itineraries with strategic noise maps (such as those required by European regulation for large cities) and estimates the level of exposure along the route. The model incorporates key variables such as time, duration of the journey, and the urban typology of the surrounding area (main roads, green areas, secondary streets, etc.).

These estimates are based on statistical data, such as noise levels averaged by time zone, day of the year, and month, obtained from municipal monitoring networks. Although it does not reflect exact minute-by-minute exposure, something that would depend on real-time measurements, the system offers a reasonable and representative estimate of the noise to which a user is exposed while walking a route under typical conditions.

This tool has enormous potential for both citizens and urban management. On a personal level, it could be integrated into navigation and sports platforms to offer a new layer of information: acoustic comfort. In this sense, it turns the user into an active agent who can monitor or modify their noise exposure. Imagine that, when planning a run, you can choose a route through parks and side streets that minimizes the noise you are exposed to. Or that you can avoid particularly noisy routes on your way to work. You could even check later how much exposure you accumulated on your route.

But its impact goes further. From the perspective of noise management and public health, this methodology opens the door to more precise estimates of the noise impact a population endures in their daily lives. While so far noise studies focused on homes, now they can also consider how and where citizens move, refocusing on how urban mobility patterns are integrated into noise planning policies.

This would allow, for example, the design of school or bicycle routes that prioritize quieter areas, the reinforcement of green areas as active mobility corridors, or the evaluation of the real impact of new infrastructure on the acoustic health of the population. It could also contribute to epidemiological studies analyzing the relationship between noise, stress, sleep, and cardiovascular disease.

Madrid served as pilot city to validate the system with promising results. The tool demonstrated its ability to distinguish significant differences in exposure between similar routes, and that even short noisy sections can significantly increase overall exposure. In many cases, modifying only part of the route achieves a significant improvement in acoustics.

Although it's not yet integrated into commercial platforms, the tool is ready to take that step. Its modular design and use of open data make it compatible with apps like Google Maps or Strava. Can you imagine a new option: "Quieter Route"? A decision that, in many cases, doesn't involve wasting time, but rather a gain in well-being.

With this methodology, the UPM not only advances scientific knowledge about noise exposure, but also puts on the table a practical, scalable tool with a direct impact on urban quality of life. An innovation that turns silence into a planning criterion. Because, in a city that constantly sounds, knowing how to choose the quietest route can make all the difference.