Dorchester, WI Noise Levels
Is Dorchester, WI noisy?
Dorchester, WI's 70-79.9 dB(A) band spans one of HUD's zone boundaries, so the honest answer is a range: somewhere between "Normally Unacceptable" (65-75 dB(A)) and "Unacceptable" (above 75 dB(A)), not one clean verdict. Rail traffic drives that number here, not the other two sources.
This describes Dorchester as a whole, not a specific block, the underlying BTS map resolves to about 38 meters per pixel, sampled at the town's own center point.
Dorchester's noise, by source
Each of the three transportation modes gets its own model from BTS; the combined figure above is what they add up to.
What this means for a house here
That also clears FHWA's own 66 dB(A) impact threshold for residential land use (23 CFR 772, Table 1), the level highway agencies use to decide whether a new road needs a sound wall. The same window and door upgrades that work on road noise also cut broadband rail noise, though very low-frequency freight rumble travels through walls, not just glass.
Where Dorchester ranks
Among the 3,622 US places in this dataset with any measurable transportation noise, Dorchester ranks 66, loudest first. By population, it ranks 11,014 of the 12,137 places in this dataset, home to about 840 people.
Your street may differ from Dorchester's reading
This page describes Dorchester as a whole. If one specific address is what matters, BTS publishes the same underlying map for free.
Behind Dorchester's reading
The methodology guide shows exactly how Dorchester's reading was built from BTS's tile data. Since rail traffic is what's driving this reading, the guide to what actually cuts each kind of noise covers the fix that fits.