Noise Levels in Notre Dame, ME | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
45 dBA
Average noise across Notre Dame
Quiet suburban street at night
1
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
4% of Notre Dame residents
64 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Notre Dame 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 Notre Dame residents, or 3.9%, live above that level. By land area, 12.5% of Notre Dame is above 55 dBA.
87.5% below 55 dBA
12.5% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Notre Dame compares to similar-sized cities.
Noise by Part of Notre Dame
Average noise levels for Notre Dame residents, grouped by direction from the center of Notre Dame. Northern Notre Dame carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern Notre Dame carries the lowest. Just 0% of residents in Southern Notre Dame live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Northern Notre Dame.
Eastern Notre Dame
50.4 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
Northern Notre Dame
54.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southern Notre Dame
39.0 dBA · Quiet
Soft rainfall
Western Notre Dame
45.5 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
Northern Notre Dame sounds about 187% louder than Southern Notre Dame to the human ear, a 15.2 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 US-1 do you need to be?
US-1 produces an estimated 58 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
58 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
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 58% of Notre Dame sits under tree canopy (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.
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Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of Notre Dame. For most blocks the rail-only contribution is small. Combined road-plus-rail noise rarely exceeds road noise on its own. The exceptions are the handful of blocks within roughly a quarter mile of the right-of-way during pass-through hours.
Use the Rail toggle on the map above to isolate rail's contribution from road and aviation.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Notre Dame
The bar chart below shows the share of Notre Dame 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 Notre Dame Compares
Notre Dame sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Notre Dame's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Lille, Keegan, Parent, and Morris Corner.
Average noise level (dBA)
Notre Dame's 45.2 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Maine as a whole averages 48.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Notre Dame because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 3.9% of Notre Dame 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, 12.5% of Notre Dame's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Maine average of 17.5% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Notre Dame
- 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 US-1 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 58% of Notre Dame is under tree cover (heavier than most cities), and the dominant land cover is mixed forest. 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.
