Noise Levels in North End, Fall River, MA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
57 dBA
Average noise across North End
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
5,224
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
61% of North End residents
80 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across North End 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 5,224 North End residents, or 61.4%, live above that level. By land area, 58.5% of North End is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for North End residents, grouped by direction from the center of North End. Northern North End carries the highest population-weighted average; Central North End carries the lowest. Just 31% of residents in Central North End live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Northern North End.
Central North End
54.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
31% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern North End
55.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
51% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern North End
61.0 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
79% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern North End
57.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
70% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western North End
58.1 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
75% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern North End sounds about 61% louder than Central North End to the human ear, a 6.9 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 State Rte 79 do you need to be?
State Rte 79 produces an estimated 73 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
73 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
59 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
330 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office
660 ft
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 28% of North End sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 49% 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 North End
The bar chart below shows the share of North End residents in each noise band. About 32% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 17% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How North End Compares
North End sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how North End's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Lower Highlands, Maplewood, Highlands-Providence, and Sandy Beach.
Average noise level (dBA)
North End's 57.4 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Massachusetts as a whole averages 54.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than North End because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 61.4% of North End 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, 58.5% of North End's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Massachusetts average of 40.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to North End
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 State Rte 79 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 28% of North End is under tree cover (heavier than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is medium-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.
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.
