Noise Levels in Sayles Boulevard Area, Abilene, TX | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
53 dBA
Average noise across Sayles Boulevard Area
Quiet office to normal conversation
610
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
36% of Sayles Boulevard Area residents
62 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Sayles Boulevard Area 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 610 Sayles Boulevard Area residents, or 36.3%, live above that level. By land area, 41.0% of Sayles Boulevard Area is above 55 dBA.
59.0% below 55 dBA
41.0% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Sayles Boulevard Area compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Sayles Boulevard Area
Average noise levels for Sayles Boulevard Area residents, grouped by direction from the center of Sayles Boulevard Area. The highest population-weighted average is in southern Sayles Boulevard Area; the lowest is in central Sayles Boulevard Area, where just 33% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in the loudest section.
Southern Sayles Boulevard Area
55.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southeastern Sayles Boulevard Area
54.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Northeastern Sayles Boulevard Area
54.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southwestern Sayles Boulevard Area
53.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Central Sayles Boulevard Area
53.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
To the human ear, noise in southern Sayles Boulevard Area sounds about 15% louder than in central Sayles Boulevard Area, a 2.0 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 do you need to be?
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
40 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 5% of Sayles Boulevard Area sits under tree canopy (lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 48% 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 Sayles Boulevard Area. 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 Sayles Boulevard Area
The bar chart below shows the share of Sayles Boulevard Area residents in each noise band. About 59% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 2% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Sayles Boulevard Area Compares
Sayles Boulevard Area sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Sayles Boulevard Area's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Over Place Area, south-east-highway-80-abilene-tx, lytle-area-abilene-tx, and Cobb Park Area.
Average noise level (dBA)
Sayles Boulevard Area's 52.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Texas as a whole averages 50.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Sayles Boulevard Area because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 36.3% of Sayles Boulevard Area 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, 41.0% of Sayles Boulevard Area's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Texas average of 22.8% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Sayles Boulevard Area
- 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 5% of Sayles Boulevard Area is under tree cover (lighter than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is low-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.
