Downers Grove, IL Noise Levels
Downers Grove, IL: what the federal noise map shows
Downers Grove, IL's 60-69.9 dB(A) band spans one of HUD's zone boundaries, so the honest answer is a range: somewhere between "Acceptable" (65 dB(A) or below) and "Normally Unacceptable" (65-75 dB(A)), not one clean verdict. Rail traffic drives that number here, not the other two sources. This describes Downers Grove 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.
Downers Grove'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
Depending on where in that band the true value sits, it may also clear FHWA's 66 dB(A) residential impact threshold (23 CFR 772, Table 1), the trigger highway agencies use for sound-wall decisions. 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 Downers Grove ranks
Among the 3,622 US places in this dataset with any measurable transportation noise, Downers Grove ranks 102, loudest first. Population is about 50,552, 810th largest of the 12,137 places covered here.
Your street may differ from Downers Grove's reading
For a single house or lot in Downers Grove rather than the town-wide figure above, BTS's own map is the same free source, queried directly.
More on how this number was built
For exactly which federal dataset feeds Downers Grove's figure, see the methodology guide. Since rail traffic is what's driving this reading, the guide to what actually cuts each kind of noise covers the fix that fits.