Noise Levels in 18059, PA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

51 dBA
Average noise across 18059
Quiet office
173
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
17% of 18059 residents
65 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 18059 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
18059, PA Map of Noise Levels in 18059
Click the map to explore
35 45 55 70 90
Quietest (dBA) Loudest
Colorblind friendly off

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 173 18059 residents, or 16.6%, live above that level. By land area, 24.9% of 18059 is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in 18059 compares to similar-sized zip codes.

Noise by Part of 18059

Average noise levels for 18059 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 18059. Central 18059 carries the highest population-weighted average; Western 18059 carries the lowest. Just 3% of residents in Western 18059 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Central 18059.

Central 18059

56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

30% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern 18059

51.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation

20% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern 18059

53.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

23% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern 18059

48.0 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office

10% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western 18059

46.0 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet suburban street at night

3% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Central 18059 sounds about 100% louder than Western 18059 to the human ear, a 10.0 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 Macarthur Rd do you need to be?

Macarthur Rd produces an estimated 65 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
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
52 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 18% of 18059 sits under tree canopy (about average for zip codes) and roughly 11% 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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How Noise Is Distributed Across 18059

The bar chart below shows the share of 18059 residents in each noise band. About 63% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 3% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How 18059 Compares

18059 sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how 18059's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 18056, 18354, 18331, and 18085.

Average noise level (dBA)

18059's 50.9 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Pennsylvania as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 18059 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 16.6% of 18059 residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 24.9% of 18059'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 18059

  • 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 Macarthur Rd 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 18% of 18059 is under tree cover (about average for zip codes), and the dominant land cover is low-density developed open space. 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.

Federal datasets used:

FHWA Highway Performance Monitoring System: road geometry, traffic counts, lane configuration
U.S. DoT Bureau of Transportation Statistics National Transportation Noise Map: aviation and rail noise, road calibration ground truth
USGS / MRLC National Land Cover Database: land cover and impervious surface coverage
USDA Forest Service Tree Canopy Cover: vegetation density for sound propagation
U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line: block-level geography and population
U.S. EPA Levels Document: 55 dBA outdoor reference level

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.

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