Fort Madison, IA Noise Levels
Is Fort Madison, IA noisy?
Fort Madison, IA'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. That's the reading at Fort Madison's Census-defined center point, not any one street, BTS's map is a live raster, not a per-address service.
Fort Madison'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 Fort Madison ranks
Among the 3,622 US places in this dataset with any measurable transportation noise, Fort Madison ranks 168, loudest first. Population is about 9,983, 3,213th largest of the 12,137 places covered here.
Your street may differ from Fort Madison's reading
This page describes Fort Madison as a whole. If one specific address is what matters, BTS publishes the same underlying map for free.
Behind Fort Madison's reading
The methodology guide shows exactly how Fort Madison'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.