Noise Levels in 20613, MD | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
48 dBA
Average noise across 20613
Quiet office
1,327
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
9% of 20613 residents
78 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 20613 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 1,327 20613 residents, or 8.9%, live above that level. By land area, 14.6% of 20613 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 20613 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 20613. Northern 20613 carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern 20613 carries the lowest. Just 2% of residents in Eastern 20613 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Northern 20613.
Eastern 20613
41.5 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
2% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 20613
53.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
18% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 20613
43.0 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
1% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 20613
49.2 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
8% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 20613 sounds about 135% louder than Eastern 20613 to the human ear, a 12.3 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 78 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 quiet office.
At source
78 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
68 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
330 ft
62 dBA
Busy restaurant
660 ft
56 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
¼ mile
50 dBA
Quiet office
½ mile
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 44% of 20613 sits under tree canopy (heavier than most 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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Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of 20613. 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.
Airport Noise
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl (DCA) sits northwest of 20613. 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 20613, particularly to the southeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across 20613
The bar chart below shows the share of 20613 residents in each noise band. About 87% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 1% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 20613 Compares
20613 sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how 20613's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 20695, 20607, 20639, and 20601.
Average noise level (dBA)
20613's 48.4 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Maryland as a whole averages 52.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 20613 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 8.9% of 20613 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, 14.6% of 20613's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Maryland average of 32.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to 20613
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 44% of 20613 is under tree cover (heavier than most zip codes), and the dominant land cover is deciduous forest. 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. Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northwest. Neighborhoods to the southeast 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.
