Decibel Shield
UK cities › England › Bedford
How loud is Bedford?
In Bedford, most noise-exposed residents face average day-evening-night (Lden) transport noise of 55–75 dB, mostly from road traffic, dropping to 50–65 dB at night. That ranks Bedford #4 of 65 English urban areas in the government's strategic noise mapping, right at the England median.
Last updated:
| England rank (of 65) | #4 |
|---|---|
| Daytime Lden range | 55–75 dB |
| Night Lnight range | 50–65 dB |
| vs. WHO guideline | ≈ 12 dB above the 53 dB Lden road-noise guideline (night guideline: 45 dB) |
| Dominant source | road traffic |
| Mapped area | Bedford/Kempston (England) |
| Population | 107,000 |
| Data round | Round 3 (2017) |
Bedford's noise picture comes from the UK's official strategic noise mapping — the same exercise every large urban area must run under the environmental noise regulations. The figures cover the official "Bedford/Kempston" agglomeration, the statutory noise-mapping area, which is wider than the city centre alone.
Across the 107,000 residents of the mapped area, the bulk of those exposed to transport noise sit in the 55–75 dB Lden band by day-evening-night average and 50–65 dB Lnight at night, with road traffic the dominant source. The midpoint of that daytime range is roughly 12 dB above the WHO's 53 dB Lden road-noise guideline (the night guideline is 45 dB Lnight).
These statistics come from the Round 3 strategic noise mapping (2017, the latest England exposure statistics published). Defra's Round 4 maps (2022) exist as noise-level grids, but the matching population-exposure tables are due to be published with the next Noise Action Plans — this page will be updated to Round 4 when they land.
Environmental noise in Bedford, by the numbers
- England rank: #4 of 65 mapped urban areas (loudest = #1)
- Daytime (Lden) exposure band: 55–75 dB for the bulk of exposed residents
- Night (Lnight) exposure band: 50–65 dB
- Dominant noise source: road traffic
- Mapped-area population: 107,000
- Data: Round 3 (2017), England strategic noise mapping
These are the official published exposure statistics from the UK's strategic noise mapping — see the methodology on the UK city ranking. Lden is the annual-average day-evening-night level; only residents above the 55 dB Lden threshold are reported.
License: Bedford's derived figures and noise map are published under CC BY 4.0 — reuse or republish with attribution to decibelshield.app. Contains public sector information from Defra, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and DAERA, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO. Download the full dataset (CSV · JSON) or the Bedford map image.
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