Noise Levels in 21146, MD | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
53 dBA
Average noise across 21146
Quiet office to normal conversation
6,709
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
25% of 21146 residents
72 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 21146 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 6,709 21146 residents, or 25.1%, live above that level. By land area, 31.9% of 21146 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 21146 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 21146. Central 21146 carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern 21146 carries the lowest. Just 23% of residents in Southern 21146 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Central 21146.
Central 21146
56.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
23% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 21146
52.9 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
22% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 21146
52.0 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
18% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 21146
51.0 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
23% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 21146
53.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
31% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Central 21146 sounds about 46% louder than Southern 21146 to the human ear, a 5.5 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 72 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
72 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
58 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
330 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office
660 ft
43 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
¼ mile
36 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 53% of 21146 sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most zip codes) and roughly 20% 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.
-->
Airport Noise
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) sits northwest of 21146. 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 50 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of 21146, 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 21146
The bar chart below shows the share of 21146 residents in each noise band. About 77% 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 21146 Compares
21146 sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how 21146's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 21114, 21403, 21012, and 21060.
Average noise level (dBA)
21146's 52.9 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Maryland as a whole averages 52.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 21146 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 25.1% of 21146 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, 31.9% of 21146'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 21146
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 53% of 21146 is under tree cover (much heavier than most 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.
Airport noise is directional. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall'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.
