Noise Levels in Big Bend, LA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
40 dBA
Average noise across Big Bend
Soft rainfall
1
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
1% of Big Bend residents
62 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Big Bend 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.
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 Big Bend residents, or 0.7%, live above that level. By land area, 0.1% of Big Bend is above 55 dBA.
99.9% below 55 dBA
0.1% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Big Bend compares to similar-sized cities.
Central Big Bend sounds about 0% louder than Central Big Bend to the human ear, a 0.0 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.
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Loudest Road Corridors
The model evaluates every road in Big Bend using federal traffic counts, posted speeds, heavy-truck ratios, and pavement type. The source level shown is the modeled noise at the road centerline, where it is loudest. Noise drops with distance, faster in vegetated areas and slower over open pavement.
RoadTypeAvg. source dBAPeak source dBA
Grand Lake Rd
Local
54.0
54
Bayou Natchitoches Rd
Local
54.0
54
Unnamed Rd 1
Local
54.0
54
Grassy Lake Rd
Local
53.1
54
How far back from Grand Lake Rd do you need to be?
Grand Lake Rd produces an estimated 54 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
54 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
165 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
330 ft
35 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 95% of Big Bend sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most cities) and roughly 0% 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.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Big Bend
The bar chart below shows the share of Big Bend residents in each noise band. About 100% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Big Bend Compares
Big Bend sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Big Bend's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Hamburg, McCrea, Bordelonville, and Red Fish.
Average noise level (dBA)
Big Bend's 39.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Louisiana as a whole averages 50.7 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Big Bend because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 0.7% of Big Bend 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, 0.1% of Big Bend's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Louisiana average of 28.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Big Bend
- 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 Grand Lake 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 95% of Big Bend is under tree cover (much heavier than most cities), and the dominant land cover is woody wetlands. 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.
