Noise Levels in Old North End, Burlington, VT | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
54 dBA
Average noise across Old North End
Quiet office to normal conversation
4,381
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
40% of Old North End residents
94 dBA
Loudest residential point
Power saw
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Old 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 4,381 Old North End residents, or 39.5%, live above that level. By land area, 43.0% of Old North End is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Old North End residents, grouped by direction from the center of Old North End. Western Old North End carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Old North End carries the lowest. Just 16% of residents in Eastern Old North End live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Western Old North End.
Central Old North End
53.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
36% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Old North End
51.9 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
16% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Old North End
53.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
37% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Old North End
57.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
58% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Old North End
58.4 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
57% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Old North End sounds about 57% louder than Eastern Old North End to the human ear, a 6.5 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 Th-3 do you need to be?
Th-3 produces an estimated 62 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
62 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
48 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
39 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 28% of Old North End sits under tree canopy (heavier than most 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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Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of Old North End. 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.
Airport Noise
Patrick Leahy Burlington International (BTV) sits east of Old North End. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 50 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Old North End, particularly to the west, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Old North End
The bar chart below shows the share of Old North End residents in each noise band. About 61% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 6% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Old North End Compares
Old North End sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Old North End's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with South End, New North End, South Burlington North, and Williston North.
Average noise level (dBA)
Old North End's 54.5 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Vermont as a whole averages 46.5 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Old North End because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 39.5% of Old 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, 43.0% of Old North End's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Vermont average of 12.4% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Old 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 Th-3 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 Old 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.
Airport noise is directional. Patrick Leahy Burlington International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the east. Neighborhoods to the west of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
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.
