From just how far away can "you" hear heavy traffic?

[Stand_watie]

By "you" I mean anyone who cares to respond, and as well I mean the normal hearing human ear in general in an otherwise quiet environment.

I have noticed, that in my otherwise quiet country environment, I can hear traffic noise from the heavily traveled highway which is about 2 miles away as the crow flies.

I wonder what distance it is possible to hear traffic noise from in an area that is very flat and has little large vegetation? I would assume it's a lot farther than that, but I wonder just how far? 

[mfree]

I've got I-40 and a train track about a mile away from the house. Now, it's hilly and heavily vegetated so that's different from your situation, but if the conditions are right the trains can be heard plain as day, and rarely I'll hear a jake brake go off on the highway from inside the house.

The train, I think, resonates in the bedrock.

[client32]

I wonder what distance it is possible to hear traffic noise from in an area that is very flat and has little large vegetation?

That would certainly define this area, but I don't know the answer to your question.  I know that I can hear the train whistle from at least 2 miles out.  I don't know about any further.  But I'll keep an ear out when pheasant hunting this year.

[Ezekiel]

Sound carries a long way, especially over water.

The reality is that, in many situations, the ear is attuned to hear sound incursions -- or abrupt differences, if you will -- and will alert your brain accordingly.

This goes back to the idea of the lighthouse keeper who has slept with a foghorn going off every two minutes for years.  One night, it doesn't and he wakes up thinking, "what was that?" 

I'll tune out heavy traffic right outside my house if it is constant.  I can hear a pin drop in silence.  It's how we're designed.

I can certainly see where being a couple of miles from anything would open my ears to sounds of civilization, like TRAFFIC.

Cheers!

[MechAg94]

I grew up 2 miles from a small town off a farm to market road.  The gravel trucks going by were pretty loud even sitting in the house and we were 150 yards from the road.  Outside, we could here the train going town or the fire siren for the vollunteer fire department. 

At other times, the wind through the trees would drown out most other sounds.  Some parts of the year the frogs and bugs would make so much racket in the evening, you couldn't hear much of anything.

[charby]

I live about 3/16 mile from a east/west mainline of Union Pacific. Trains about every 15 minutes, only time I hear them is if they are pulling a heavy load. Sometimes you can feel the trains too. The town I live in has a no train horn ordinance so there are sirens/klaxons at the intersections and I can't hear them from the house.

I also live on a heavy traffic street but the speed limit is 25 by my house due to a school. Only vehicles I hear are ones with loud stereos and loud exhausts.

[Creeping Incrementalism]

I just checked Mapquest and I live 4400 feet from a freeway with soundwalls.  With a window open and not much wind it is easily audible, though not bothersome as it is just distant "white noise".  There's also a Bart (electric commutor) train station 10,650 feet away which makes a very noticeable "skreech" when it brakes into the station--no soundwalls by the track except in the station itself--that can be heard even with the windows shut, but it is not enough to wake you up.  The nosiest are mountain highways, with madly chugging engines going up and louder engine brakes going down.  Even with ridgelines in between they are noisy.

I'll tune out heavy traffic right outside my house if it is constant.  I can hear a pin drop in silence.  It's how we're designed.

I once met a guy who slept very close to the flight deck of an aircraft carrier and could hear a loud slam as a plane landed, then the whirring noise of the tailhooks catching the wire and stretching out.  He said he could sleep through that no problem, but someone dropping a can in the hallway outside his room would wake him right up.

[wingnutx]

I live 50 feet from the freeway wall, so I guess i will have to answer "50 feet".

[Brad Johnson]

Depends on the atmosphere. Where my parents live they are half a mile from a moderately traveled state highway. Some days it's dead quiet while other days it sounds like the vehicles are driving through the front yard.

Brad

[wingnutx]

The freeway sounds a lot like the ocean from my property.

[Mannlicher]

I often hike in a State Park just north of Gainesville.  I can hear truck traffic on I-75 when hiking, and some of the trails are over three miles from the Interstate.

[Vodka7]

Given that I live on one of Philadelphia's major arteries, with a fire house a block away, I don't get the pleasure of hearing traffic any further away than oh, five feet from my window.  One of the most important things I learned in college was how to sleep through everything except my alarm clock, a fire alarm, and physical touch.  My roommate on the other hand, has to rely on sleeping pills and earplugs.

[oldcop1971]

We live one mile away from a soft-ball field.  We can easily hear the crowd when they play at nite.  We can hear (faintly, outside) a tornado siren 5 miles away.  Traffic noise vary from up nearby to around two miles away, but we live in the country with no major highways close by.  Were sitting on the back porch one nite and heard the tires squealing and BLAM of a one car wreck about 1.5 miles from the house.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I find that it depends upon the time of day. 

At night I can clearly hear trains from about 2.5 miles away.  During the day they're impossible to hear. 

There's an interstate 2 miles away.  During the day it's barely audible outside, unnoticeable inside.  At night it's easy to hear the semis outside, or inside if a window is open.

[Perd Hapley]

I live about two-hundred yards from Interstate 70 and Lambert International Airport, in an old, barely-insulated house.  Even when I'm outside I rarely hear anything.  Took me no time at all to get used to it. 

But I've never had very sharp ears. 

[Ezekiel]

It's all about attenuation.

I'd bet that -- for some reason -- if planes just stopped taking off for an hour, you'd think to yourself, "What the Hell is THAT?" 

[Perd Hapley]

We have a friend with a condo on the other end of the airport, the end where the planes take off.  She gets all the noise.     On our end, they come in for the landing.  I think 70 would be louder if it weren't moving so slowly.   

[Tallpine]

I can sometimes hear (from outside, not in the house) the rumble of freight trains about 10 miles away, across timbered ridges and prairie.

Other than that, it's pretty quite out here except for the wind in the pine trees, a few barking dogs (which you can hear a mile or so away), and the occasional vehicle going up/down the county road.

Oh yeah, then there's the guy in the supercub flying the oil pipeline once a week or so, and sometimes a damn helicopter flies over at treetop level.    First time that happened, I thought our horses were going to run right through the fences.  Isn't there a rule that aircraft are supposed to stay at least 500 feet AGL ?

[Perd Hapley]

sometimes a damn helicopter flies over at treetop level.    First time that happened, I thought our horses were going to run right through the fences.  Isn't there a rule that aircraft are supposed to stay at least 500 feet AGL ?

Fool.  Black helicopters are above the law.   

[Winston Smith]

The freeway sounds a lot like the ocean from my property

The ocean sounds kinda like a freeway from where I sleep.

[Perd Hapley]

That sounds real nice, California boy, but you can't drive on the ocean.  So there! 

[Winston Smith]

At least I'm not a redneck, meaning I don't reside east of berkeley and west of new york city. (according to my fellow san franciscans).


Go swim in a freeway, fistful.