When quiet hours start in local noise codes

Findings

• Among the 109 local codes listed in this table, 69 (63 percent) start the nightly period for noise in general at 10 p.m.
• The next most common start is 11 p.m., in 13 codes (12 percent).
• 21 of the 109 codes (19 percent) start the period before 10 p.m. The earliest start in the table is 6 p.m. (1 place) and the latest is midnight (1 place).
• The most common period is 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., stated in 57 codes (52 percent). The median length is 9 hours.
• In 18 of the 109 rows (17 percent) the quoted passage states different hours for weekends or holidays.

Places by the time the nightly period starts

What is counted

Quiet-hours rules on record for cities and counties

935

Left out because the source link is not on the allowed list

28

Left out because the quoted text is state law, not the local code

133

Left out because the place could not be resolved

1

Left out because the cited section is another place's code

6

Left out because the citation or link names a report, a plan or a web page, not a code

5

Left out because the quoted text states no period as two clock times

96

Left out because the quoted text states only daytime periods, or periods outside the night range

30

Left out because the night hours are written for one activity, source or zone

371

Left out because the quoted text does not say what the night hours apply to

113

Left out because the period is written for weekdays and no weekend period was read

1

Left out because the general periods disagree or come in two steps

5

Passed every rule above, then left out because a comparison with the live code did not bear the row out

11

Passed every rule above, then left out because the cited section could not be opened for the comparison

25

Left out because the row was not compared, or has changed since it was

1

Listed, with a stated nightly period for noise in general

109

Every row in this table was compared with the live text of the cited section on October 13, 2026. The comparison found 31 rows that the live text did not bear out and 26 whose section could not be opened. None of them is listed.

By state

The full table

The column “Length” is worked out from values the quoted text states, so it can show a figure the quoted text does not print.

An empty cell means the builder read no value for it in the quoted text. It does not mean the code has none. The link in each row is the address stored on the rule page for that passage, or the address of the cited section where a link correction or the comparison with the live code recorded one. It can open the front page of the code or a different part of the code, not the cited section, so look the section up by its citation. “Source last checked” is the date recorded on a rule page when the page was last written or edited, or when a software re-check last found no newer edition of the code or no change to the source page, whichever is later. It is not a record of anyone comparing a rule page with its source.

How this was made

Each row comes from one quiet-hours page of this site. The builder is a script. It reads only the passage of the local code that is stored and quoted on that page, by pattern matching and with no language model. No value is taken from any other text on the page, and the page title is used only to leave a row out. The script looks for two clock times written as one period, such as "between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m." or "10 p.m. to 7 a.m.", where the period starts between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m., ends between 4 a.m. and noon, and lasts between four and seventeen hours. Each time has to carry its own a.m. or p.m., or be written as midnight or noon.

A period counts only when the words around it tie it to noise in general: a rule against noise or sound as such, a sound level limit that changes by time of day, or the code's own definition of night or quiet hours. A period written for one activity or one kind of source is left out. That covers construction, power tools and lawn equipment, refuse collection, deliveries, vehicles, animals, shouting, businesses and venues, parks and campgrounds, and also radios, televisions, musical instruments and amplified sound. It covers a passage that names a stationary or fixed source of sound, a rule for noise that passes between the units of one building, and a table of sound levels that is introduced by a sentence about amplified sound or sound production devices. A period is also left out when it is written only for a commercial or industrial zone, when the text says "particularly", "especially" or "including but not limited to" before it (the rule then applies at all hours), when it relaxes a limit instead of setting one, when it only defines a day and night average, and when the page title names a single activity or place.

A period is left out as well when the passage no longer says what the hours apply to. That is the case when the quoted passage opens partway through a rule; when a sound level stands in a passage that has no word for noise or sound, as a bare row of a decibel table does; and when a numbered item that follows an omission mark states only a level, without saying what makes the sound or where it comes from.

Where a passage states more than one general period, the one written for weekdays or for every day is the value, and among several of those the one written for a residential setting. A weekend or holiday period that differs goes in the last column: as hours when the passage states exactly one such period and it is a night, and as "Different hours" otherwise. The row is left out if the weekday periods still disagree, if the only general period is written for weekends, or if the code lowers its limit in two steps, once in the evening and again at night, which gives two candidates for the start. It is left out if the period is written for weekdays only ("Sunday through Thursday", "Monday through Friday") and the script read no weekend period beside it, if the sentence holds a time of day the script could not read, and if the sentence cites sound levels set in another section while the passage quotes no decibel figure. The length is worked out from the two times and is not quoted from the code.

Of the 935 quiet-hours rules on record for cities and counties, 28 were left out because the source link is not on this site's list of official sources, 133 because the link points to a state or federal site (a state statute quoted on a city page is not that city's rule), 1 because the place has no page on this site, 6 because the citation names another place's code and 5 because the citation or the link names a report, a plan or a web page and not a code. The tests on the citation and the link are pattern matches. That leaves 762 local rules, of which 146 gave a value under the rules above.

Every row listed was compared with the live code. On 2026-10-13 the 166 rows of the table as it then stood were each compared with the live text of the section the row cites. 109 stood, 31 did not, and for 26 the section could not be opened. The comparison was made by an AI system that read each live section, not by a person. Only rows that stood are listed. Several of the leave-out rules described above were written after that comparison. Of the 31 rows that did not stand, 20 are now left out by one of the rules above and 11 on the finding of the comparison alone. Of the 26 rows whose section could not be opened, 25 are left out for that reason and 1 by a rule above. 1 row is left out because the row was not part of the comparison or shows a different value now.

Every row carries a quote that is an exact slice of the stored passage and contains each time shown in the row. That check runs in code on every row before the file is written. A quote that would carry words in square brackets that are not the code's leaves its row out (0 rows), since a reader could not find such a quote word for word in the section. The table and the CSV were built on 2026-10-13 from the same file.

Every row in this table was compared with the live text of the cited section on October 13, 2026. The comparison found 31 rows that the live text did not bear out and 26 whose section could not be opened. None of them is listed. A code can change after that date. How the comparison is made is on the methodology page.

What this does not show

This is not a national estimate. The table covers the cities and counties this site has a quiet-hours page for, which is not a random sample of local governments. Florida, California and Georgia hold 37 of the 109 rows (34 percent).

A place that is not listed may still restrict noise at night. Of the 762 local rules read, 616 gave no value. In 96 the quoted text states no period as two clock times. Examples are codes that rely on a decibel table without hours, on a "plainly audible" distance or on a ban on unreasonable noise at any hour, and codes that give one time only, such as "after 11:00 p.m.". In 30 it states only daytime periods, or periods outside the night range described above. In 371 the night hours quoted are written for one activity, source or zone, most often radios, televisions and musical instruments, shouting in the street, power tools, or construction. In 113 the script could not establish from the quoted text what the night hours apply to. In 1 the period is written for weekdays and no weekend period was read. In 5 the general periods disagree, come in two steps, or cannot be shown in one short quote.

Each value comes from the passage stored on the page, not from the whole code. A code can set other hours in a section that is not quoted, and codes change. Pattern matching can also misread a row. A blank in the "Weekends, if different" column means the script read no weekend or holiday period in the stored passage. Each row names the section and links to the official code. For some rows the link opens the cited section, and for others the contents page of the code, where the section has to be found by its number.

The date in the "Source last checked" column is the date recorded on the rule page when the page was last written or edited, or when a software re-check last found no newer edition of the code. It is not a record of anyone comparing the passage with its source.

Three kinds of text sit side by side in the table: bans on noise at night, lower sound level limits at night, and definitions of nighttime. They are not equally strict. The start time shows when the night period begins, not how much noise is allowed during it or outside it. The length is worked out from the two times as the code prints them. In 7 rows the code writes a time to the odd minute (for example 10:01 p.m. to 7:59 a.m.), so the length shown is a minute or two short of a whole hour and the row ranks just behind a place whose code writes the same night in round hours.

Cite or reuse

CityRuleLookup, “When quiet hours start in local noise codes”, built October 13, 2026, https://cityrulelookup.com/data/quiet-hours-start-times.

Study tables and data files are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Credit CityRuleLookup in any reasonable form. A link is welcome and may carry rel="nofollow".

Download this table as a CSV file. The file gives, for each row: jurisdiction, state, type, “Starts”, “Ends”, “Length”, “Weekends, if different”, section citation, source link, page address on this site and the date the source was last checked. The file has no column for the supporting quote.