Noise Levels in Sandy Beach, Fall River, MA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

54 dBA
Average noise across Sandy Beach
Quiet office to normal conversation
7,245
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
46% of Sandy Beach residents
81 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Sandy Beach 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
Sandy Beach, Fall River, MA Map of Noise Levels in Sandy Beach
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 7,245 Sandy Beach residents, or 46.0%, live above that level. By land area, 47.2% of Sandy Beach is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Sandy Beach compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.

Noise by Part of Sandy Beach

Average noise levels for Sandy Beach residents, grouped by direction from the center of Sandy Beach. The highest population-weighted average is in northeastern Sandy Beach; the lowest is in southern Sandy Beach, where just 22% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in the loudest section.

Northeastern Sandy Beach

57.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away

47% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern Sandy Beach

56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

44% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southeastern Sandy Beach

54.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

44% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western Sandy Beach

51.6 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation

18% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Sandy Beach

51.2 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation

22% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

To the human ear, noise in northeastern Sandy Beach sounds about 52% louder than in southern Sandy Beach, a 6.0 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 I-195 do you need to be?

I-195 produces an estimated 76 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
76 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
63 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
55 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
660 ft
47 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall

Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 21% of Sandy Beach sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 61% 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 Sandy Beach

The bar chart below shows the share of Sandy Beach residents in each noise band. About 57% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 5% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How Sandy Beach Compares

Sandy Beach sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Sandy Beach's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Maplewood, Flint Village, North End, and Lower Highlands.

Average noise level (dBA)

Sandy Beach's 54.4 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Massachusetts as a whole averages 54.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Sandy Beach because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 46.0% of Sandy Beach 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, 47.2% of Sandy Beach'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 Sandy Beach

  • 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 I-195 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 21% of Sandy Beach 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.

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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