Medium Road Noise
Moderate traffic noise
Medium road noise covers modelled traffic noise of 65 to 75 dB Lden on the strategic noise maps. Lden is a 24-hour indicator averaged over a year, with evening and night hours carrying extra weight. The maps model a grid of the wider area, not individual front doors. Responsibility for the mapping is devolved to each UK nation.
What This Means
You will hear traffic through the day, and much more of it with a window open. At this level a closed window still lets a steady hum through older single glazing. Sleep can suffer in a bedroom facing the road unless the glazing is good. Gardens and balconies carry a constant background roar that no glazing will soften. What you hear on a viewing tells you more than the band, which maps the street not the house. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Score Ranges
Low Noise
45 to 65 dB LdenTraffic noise is low and unlikely to intrude on daily life.
Medium Noise
65 to 75 dB LdenTraffic is clearly audible indoors with a window open and across gardens.
High Noise
Over 75 dB LdenTraffic noise is significant and can affect sleep and outdoor use.
Practical Advice
- Ask the estate agent which rooms face the road before you plan where bedrooms would go.
- Visit at the morning rush and again late at night to judge the range for yourself.
- Get a secondary glazing quote for any room where the existing windows are single glazed.
- Stand in the garden for five minutes at rush hour, since outdoor noise is what glazing cannot fix.
Additional Information
Strategic maps model noise on a 10 metre grid at 4 metres above ground, roughly first-floor height. A ground-floor room or a garden can therefore sit a little below the band. The link below is England's Defra noise collection.