Noise Levels in Bellemeade, Richmond, VA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
56 dBA
Average noise across Bellemeade
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
1,567
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
54% of Bellemeade residents
70 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Bellemeade at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
Colorblind friendlyoff
What the numbers sound like
30 dBAWhisper
40 dBASoft rainfall
45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
50 dBAQuiet office
55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
65 dBABusy restaurant
70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
80 dBACity bus interior
Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold
The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 1,567 Bellemeade residents, or 54.4%, live above that level. By land area, 53.8% of Bellemeade is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Bellemeade residents, grouped by direction from the center of Bellemeade. Southern Bellemeade carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern Bellemeade carries the lowest. Just 45% of residents in Northern Bellemeade live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Southern Bellemeade.
Central Bellemeade
54.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
46% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Bellemeade
58.1 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
59% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Bellemeade
54.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
45% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Bellemeade
58.2 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
67% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Bellemeade
56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
50% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Bellemeade sounds about 27% louder than Northern Bellemeade to the human ear, a 3.5 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.
How far back from Bellemeade Rd do you need to be?
Bellemeade Rd produces an estimated 61 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a soft rainfall.
At source
61 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
48 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 36% of Bellemeade sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 32% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Airport Noise
Richmond International (RIC) sits east of Bellemeade. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Bellemeade, particularly to the west, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Bellemeade
The bar chart below shows the share of Bellemeade residents in each noise band. About 31% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 3% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Bellemeade Compares
Bellemeade sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Bellemeade's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with walmsley-richmond-va, Reedy Creek, Swansboro, and Shockoe Bottom.
Average noise level (dBA)
Bellemeade's 56.5 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Virginia as a whole averages 52.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Bellemeade because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 54.4% of Bellemeade residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 53.8% of Bellemeade's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Virginia average of 30.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Bellemeade
Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from Bellemeade Rd and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 36% of Bellemeade is under tree cover (much heavier than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is low-intensity developed land. Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
Airport noise is directional. Richmond International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the east. Neighborhoods to the west of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
