Noise Levels in Red Mills, NY | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
43 dBA
Average noise across Red Mills
Quiet suburban street at night
10
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
2% of Red Mills residents
65 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Red Mills 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 10 Red Mills residents, or 1.6%, live above that level. By land area, 1.4% of Red Mills is above 55 dBA.
98.6% below 55 dBA
1.4% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Red Mills compares to similar-sized cities.
Noise by Part of Red Mills
Average noise levels for Red Mills residents, grouped by direction from the center of Red Mills. Western Red Mills carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Red Mills carries the lowest. Just 1% of residents in Eastern Red Mills live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Western Red Mills.
Central Red Mills
40.8 dBA · Quiet
Soft rainfall
Eastern Red Mills
39.6 dBA · Quiet
Soft rainfall
Northern Red Mills
42.4 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
Southern Red Mills
41.8 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
Western Red Mills
45.1 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
Western Red Mills sounds about 46% louder than Eastern Red Mills to the human ear, a 5.5 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 do you need to be?
produces an estimated 65 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
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
43 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
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 75% of Red Mills sits under tree canopy (much 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 Red Mills. 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 Red Mills
The bar chart below shows the share of Red Mills 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 Red Mills Compares
Red Mills sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Red Mills's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with DePeyster, Chase Mills, Brier Hill, and Flackville.
Average noise level (dBA)
Red Mills's 42.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. New York as a whole averages 55.4 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Red Mills because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 1.6% of Red Mills 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, 1.4% of Red Mills's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New York average of 30.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Red Mills
- 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 75% of Red Mills is under tree cover (much heavier than most cities), and the dominant land cover is woody wetlands. 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.
