Noise Levels in Holmes-Foster Historic District, State College, PA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

54 dBA
Average noise across Holmes-Foster Historic District
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,232
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
30% of Holmes-Foster Historic District residents
66 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Holmes-Foster Historic District 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
Holmes-Foster Historic District, State College, PA Map of Noise Levels in Holmes-Foster Historic District
Click the map to explore
35 45 55 EPA 70 90
Quietest (dBA) Loudest
Colorblind friendly off

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 1,232 Holmes-Foster Historic District residents, or 30.3%, live above that level. By land area, 41.5% of Holmes-Foster Historic District is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Holmes-Foster Historic District compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.

Noise by Part of Holmes-Foster Historic District

Average noise levels for Holmes-Foster Historic District residents, grouped by direction from the center of Holmes-Foster Historic District. Central Holmes-Foster Historic District carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Holmes-Foster Historic District carries the lowest. Just 22% of residents in Western Holmes-Foster Historic District live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Central Holmes-Foster Historic District.

Central Holmes-Foster Historic District

55.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

34% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern Holmes-Foster Historic District

52.2 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation

24% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Holmes-Foster Historic District

54.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

32% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western Holmes-Foster Historic District

48.9 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office

22% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Central Holmes-Foster Historic District sounds about 54% louder than Western Holmes-Foster Historic District to the human ear, a 6.2 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 66 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
66 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
165 ft
53 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
38 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall

Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 16% of Holmes-Foster Historic District sits under tree canopy (about average for neighborhoods) and roughly 55% 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 Holmes-Foster Historic District

The bar chart below shows the share of Holmes-Foster Historic District residents in each noise band. About 70% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 15% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How Holmes-Foster Historic District Compares

Holmes-Foster Historic District sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Holmes-Foster Historic District's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Highlands Historic District, Dogtown, Hall Manor, and Midtown Harrisburg.

Average noise level (dBA)

Holmes-Foster Historic District's 53.8 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Pennsylvania as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Holmes-Foster Historic District because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 30.3% of Holmes-Foster Historic District residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's fewer than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 41.5% of Holmes-Foster Historic District's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Pennsylvania average of 33.5% and a national average of 28.1%.

What This Means if You're Moving to Holmes-Foster Historic District

  • 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 Holmes-Foster Historic District is under tree cover (about average for 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.

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.

Federal datasets used:

FHWA Highway Performance Monitoring System: road geometry, traffic counts, lane configuration
U.S. DoT Bureau of Transportation Statistics National Transportation Noise Map: aviation and rail noise, road calibration ground truth
USGS / MRLC National Land Cover Database: land cover and impervious surface coverage
USDA Forest Service Tree Canopy Cover: vegetation density for sound propagation
U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line: block-level geography and population
U.S. EPA Levels Document: 55 dBA outdoor reference level

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.

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