On April 30, 2025 — the 30th annual International Noise Awareness Day — the Noise Project announced the deployment of the first in a planned network of city-wide noise monitors, intended to ascertain both baseline sound levels and daily / weekly / seasonal noise trends around Providence, to determine if the city’s efforts to reduce unhealthy noise levels are sufficiently effective.
In the relatively short time the initial monitor has been operating, it has routinely registered noise levels far exceeding municipal sound-level limits for residential areas — including late at night and as early as 5:00 a.m. in the morning — with recurrent peaks (see graphic below) between 90–100 decibels throughout the day, which is hundreds of times louder than legal levels.1
PVD sound data on Noise Awareness Day in decibels (A/C/Z)2 — including a 90+ dB peak at 5:00 a.m. (below the purple box).
Roughly half way through Mayor Brett Smiley’s third year in office, and despite his declared intent to reduce noise levels in the city, volume levels from recurrent sources such as vehicles, house parties, and commercial establishments remain higher than allowed by city ordinances, on an ongoing basis.
The observed source of most of the noise data collected by the monitor has been vehicles with modified mufflers or over-amplified sound systems — the two most prevalent noise sources residents report in the city.
In response to the Noise Project’s survey of mayoral candidates in 2022, Smiley wrote that the city should actively collect noise data, stating that, “As part of a review of the noise level in our city and improved enforcement, noise should be measured on an ongoing basis in order to produce consistent data.”
On the basis of their responses to our survey, we endorsed two candidates in the election, including Smiley. As mayor, however, his administration has not measured noise levels, or indicated any plans to do so. Without determining existing sound levels around the city, it’s difficult to know whether the city’s noise-reduction policies are effective.
The Noise Project plans to add additional monitors in the coming months, with the goal of collecting a representative sample of sound levels around Providence, to help identify areas where residents face the most persistent exposure to excessive and unhealthy noise, and thus where the city should focus its abatement efforts.
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1 Decibels are a logarithmic (exponential) scale, not a linear one that increases at the same rate, so a peak that’s 35+ dB higher than Providence’s 55-dB overnight limit is actually more than 100 times louder than is legal.
2 All three colored lines represent the same sound data “weighted” to feature different frequency ranges — the green line is what’s called “A-weighting,” which emphasizes the frequency range of human speech, the orange line is “C-weighted” to capture the low-frequency bass that‘s especially common in Providence, and the blue line is “Z-weighted,” which is actually unweighted (i.e., data with no weighting). As you can see, A-weighting depicts noise levels as lower than unweighted data, and thus may inaccurately represent actual noise levels.