Noise Levels in 10026, NY | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
60 dBA
Average noise across 10026
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
25,921
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
89% of 10026 residents
68 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 10026 at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
Colorblind friendlyoff
What the numbers sound like
30 dBAWhisper
40 dBASoft rainfall
45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
50 dBAQuiet office
55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
65 dBABusy restaurant
70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
80 dBACity bus interior
Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold
The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 25,921 10026 residents, or 88.9%, live above that level. By land area, 92.1% of 10026 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 10026 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 10026. Eastern 10026 carries the highest population-weighted average; Western 10026 carries the lowest. Just 100% of residents in Western 10026 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Eastern 10026.
Central 10026
60.3 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
89% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 10026
62.5 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
81% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 10026
62.0 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 10026
55.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 10026 sounds about 58% louder than Western 10026 to the human ear, a 6.6 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.
How far back from do you need to be?
produces an estimated 68 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a soft rainfall.
At source
68 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
165 ft
53 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
36 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 2% of 10026 sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most zip codes) and roughly 80% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Airport Noise
Laguardia (LGA) sits east of 10026. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 75 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of 10026, particularly to the west, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across 10026
The bar chart below shows the share of 10026 residents in each noise band. About 7% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 68% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 10026 Compares
10026 sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how 10026's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 10035, 10030, 10065, and 10022.
Average noise level (dBA)
10026's 60.4 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. New York as a whole averages 55.4 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 10026 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 88.9% of 10026 residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's fewer than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 92.1% of 10026's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New York average of 30.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to 10026
Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 2% of 10026 is under tree cover (much lighter than most zip codes), and the dominant land cover is high-intensity developed land. Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
Airport noise is directional. Laguardia's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the east. Neighborhoods to the west of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
