Noise Levels in 15697, PA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
58 dBA
Average noise across 15697
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
1,260
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
57% of 15697 residents
100 dBA
Loudest residential point
Power saw
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 15697 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 1,260 15697 residents, or 57.0%, live above that level. By land area, 59.5% of 15697 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 15697 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 15697. Central 15697 carries the highest population-weighted average; Western 15697 carries the lowest. Just 19% of residents in Western 15697 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Central 15697.
Central 15697
60.6 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
67% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 15697
59.7 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
73% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 15697
54.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
42% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 15697
59.2 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
78% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 15697
53.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
19% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Central 15697 sounds about 65% louder than Western 15697 to the human ear, a 7.2 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 Third St do you need to be?
Third St produces an estimated 66 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
66 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
53 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 26% of 15697 sits under tree canopy (about average for zip codes) and roughly 35% 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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Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of 15697. For most blocks the rail-only contribution is small. Combined road-plus-rail noise rarely exceeds road noise on its own. The exceptions are the handful of blocks within roughly a quarter mile of the right-of-way during pass-through hours.
Use the Rail toggle on the map above to isolate rail's contribution from road and aviation.
How Noise Is Distributed Across 15697
The bar chart below shows the share of 15697 residents in each noise band. About 39% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 25% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 15697 Compares
15697 sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how 15697's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 15639, 15679, 15672, and 15479.
Average noise level (dBA)
15697's 57.9 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Pennsylvania as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 15697 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 57.0% of 15697 residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's more than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 59.5% of 15697's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Pennsylvania average of 33.5% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to 15697
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 Third St 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 26% of 15697 is under tree cover (about average for zip codes), and the dominant land cover is medium-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.
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.
