Why Town Noise Codes are unusable and how to fix them

You likely live somewhere governed by a local government that has a noise code. That code likely is based on Dba or Decibel Levels. The trouble here is that there's more to offensive sound than Dba. What is the average noise level from non-offensive, standard noise? What is that noise made up of? Is it traffic? Is it mechanical? Is it ocean waves? What makes the noise and what unwanted noise rises above that baseline average? As we ask those questions it becomes quickly apparent that there's no simple answer with Dba alone.
What do we know? Towns are right to try to keep the peace for their citizens. Dba is a step in trying to deal with this but, watch this video, and you'll see how complicated it is and a few actionable tips if a town wanted to try to address this in their codes.
We're not big on relativism in a lot of areas of life but with sound, offensive noise is relative to the baseline noise you're used to already and there's ways of doing the testing and math to figure this all out.
Want help with this? Contact us. www.AVLDesigns...

[@JamesMoore-ic3vz]

I loved going to meet with the code enforcement officer regarding the sound from a new football stadium. We asked him exactly what the problem was and he said the neighbors on one side were complaining. They were in the McMansions much further away than the middle class housing maybe 50-75 yards away. We asked how loud should our sound be and he answered, “Set it to the level of TEN.” Thankfully Seth was the design consultant and we didn’t have to deal with the municipal “Audio Professional “.