Noise Levels in State College, Pennsylvania

Abstract

A survey has been made of the acoustic noise levels existing on the university campus and in the surrounding town. Most residents of State College feel that it is a quiet community when compared to larger cities. The survey described here was undertaken to compare the noise levels of a large city with those of State College. Although representing only a limited number of observations the data strongly suggest the following conclusions: (1) For similar locations there are no significant differences in the character of the spectra or the levels observed in State College as compared to a large city, and (2) The high noise levels (greater than 85 db over-all) observed in cities as a result of very heavy traffic and industrial noise are very seldom observed in State College. Where these do occur, such as downtown during the daytime, the frequency of occurrence is sufficiently low so as to constitute considerably less than one percent of the hearing experience of an average resident. The work was supported in part by contract No. AF33(616)-2626. This material was included in W.F.B.'s M.S. thesis and in WADC Technical Report number 54-227.