Noise Levels in 94596, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
58 dBA
Average noise across 94596
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
10,290
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
46% of 94596 residents
87 dBA
Loudest residential point
Lawnmower at 1 m
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 94596 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 10,290 94596 residents, or 46.4%, live above that level. By land area, 47.0% of 94596 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 94596 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 94596. Southern 94596 carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern 94596 carries the lowest. Just 17% of residents in Eastern 94596 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Southern 94596.
Central 94596
52.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
30% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 94596
50.7 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
17% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 94596
55.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
33% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 94596
62.9 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
58% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 94596
62.3 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
84% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 94596 sounds about 133% louder than Eastern 94596 to the human ear, a 12.2 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 I-680 do you need to be?
I-680 produces an estimated 80 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 suburban street at night.
At source
80 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
66 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
330 ft
58 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
50 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 12% of 94596 sits under tree canopy (lighter than most zip codes) and roughly 50% 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 94596. 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
San Francisco Bay Oakland International (OAK) sits southwest of 94596. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, 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 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of 94596, particularly to the northeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across 94596
The bar chart below shows the share of 94596 residents in each noise band. About 51% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 31% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 94596 Compares
94596 sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how 94596's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 94597, 94598, 94518, and 94549.
Average noise level (dBA)
94596's 57.5 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 94596 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 46.4% of 94596 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, 47.0% of 94596's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a California average of 36.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to 94596
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 I-680 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 12% of 94596 is under tree cover (lighter than most zip codes), and the dominant land cover is low-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.
Airport noise is directional. San Francisco Bay Oakland International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southwest. Neighborhoods to the northeast 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.
