Noise Levels in Byron, WI | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
55 dBA
Average noise across Byron
Quiet office to normal conversation
174
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
37% of Byron residents
85 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Byron 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 174 Byron residents, or 36.7%, live above that level. By land area, 61.4% of Byron is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Byron residents, grouped by direction from the center of Byron. Eastern Byron carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Byron carries the lowest. Just 8% of residents in Western Byron live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Eastern Byron.
Central Byron
53.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
26% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Byron
58.0 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
53% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Byron
55.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
36% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Byron
50.4 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
8% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Byron sounds about 69% louder than Western Byron to the human ear, a 7.6 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 do you need to be?
produces an estimated 85 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 quiet office.
At source
85 dBA
Food blender at arm’s length
165 ft
72 dBA
City bus interior
330 ft
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
660 ft
57 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
¼ mile
50 dBA
Quiet office
½ mile
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 16% of Byron sits under tree canopy (lighter than most cities) and roughly 2% 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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How Noise Is Distributed Across Byron
The bar chart below shows the share of Byron residents in each noise band. About 44% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 9% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Byron Compares
Byron sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Byron's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with West Rosendale, South Byron, Woodhull, and Wayne.
Average noise level (dBA)
Byron's 55.3 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Wisconsin as a whole averages 53.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Byron because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 36.7% of Byron residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's more than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 61.4% of Byron's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Wisconsin average of 29.6% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Byron
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 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 16% of Byron is under tree cover (lighter than most cities), and the dominant land cover is pasture / hay. 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.
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.
