Noise Levels in 50012, IA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
58 dBA
Average noise across 50012
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
1,331
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
54% of 50012 residents
65 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 50012 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 1,331 50012 residents, or 54.2%, live above that level. By land area, 65.4% of 50012 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 50012 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 50012. Eastern 50012 carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern 50012 carries the lowest. Just 22% of residents in Southern 50012 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Eastern 50012.
Central 50012
58.8 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
57% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 50012
62.3 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 50012
53.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
22% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 50012 sounds about 79% louder than Southern 50012 to the human ear, a 8.4 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 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
51 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 0% of 50012 sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most zip codes) and roughly 68% 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 50012. 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 50012
The bar chart below shows the share of 50012 residents in each noise band. About 8% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 50012 Compares
50012 sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how 50012's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 50276, 50212, 50244, and 50105.
Average noise level (dBA)
50012's 58.4 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Iowa as a whole averages 52.2 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 50012 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 54.2% of 50012 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, 65.4% of 50012's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Iowa average of 23.6% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to 50012
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 0% of 50012 is under tree cover (much lighter than most 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.
