Noise Levels in Woburn Street Historic District, Reading, MA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
54 dBA
Average noise across Woburn Street Historic District
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,660
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
36% of Woburn Street Historic District residents
71 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Woburn Street Historic District 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 1,660 Woburn Street Historic District residents, or 35.5%, live above that level. By land area, 39.8% of Woburn Street Historic District is above 55 dBA.
60.2% below 55 dBA
39.8% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Woburn Street Historic District compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Woburn Street Historic District
Average noise levels for Woburn Street Historic District residents, grouped by direction from the center of Woburn Street Historic District. Eastern Woburn Street Historic District carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Woburn Street Historic District carries the lowest. Just 26% of residents in Central Woburn Street Historic District live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Eastern Woburn Street Historic District.
Central Woburn Street Historic District
53.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Eastern Woburn Street Historic District
56.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
Northern Woburn Street Historic District
53.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southern Woburn Street Historic District
54.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Western Woburn Street Historic District
55.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Eastern Woburn Street Historic District sounds about 27% louder than Central Woburn Street Historic District to the human ear, a 3.5 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 I-93 do you need to be?
I-93 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
46 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
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 49% of Woburn Street Historic District sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 24% 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 Woburn Street Historic District. 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
General Edward Lawrence Logan International (BOS) sits southeast of Woburn Street Historic District. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, 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 75 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Woburn Street Historic District, particularly to the northwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Woburn Street Historic District
The bar chart below shows the share of Woburn Street Historic District residents in each noise band. About 53% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 4% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Woburn Street Historic District Compares
Woburn Street Historic District sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Woburn Street Historic District's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Nobility Hill Historic District, Arlington Heights, Waverley Square, and Area IV.
Average noise level (dBA)
Woburn Street Historic District's 54.5 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 Woburn Street Historic District because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 35.5% of Woburn Street Historic District 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, 39.8% of Woburn Street Historic District'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 Woburn Street Historic District
- 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-93 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 49% of Woburn Street Historic District is under tree cover (much heavier than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is low-density developed open space. 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. General Edward Lawrence Logan International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southeast. Neighborhoods to the northwest of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
