Gardner, KS Noise Levels
Gardner, KS: what the federal noise map shows
Gardner, KS'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. Gardner's reading comes from a single sampled point, not a block-by-block sweep, so a specific address here could genuinely differ.
Gardner'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 Gardner ranks
Among the 3,622 US places in this dataset with any measurable transportation noise, Gardner ranks 23, loudest first. Population is about 25,836, 1,554th largest of the 12,137 places covered here.
Your street may differ from Gardner's reading
For a single house or lot in Gardner 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 Gardner'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.