Noise Levels in 95231, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
53 dBA
Average noise across 95231
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,331
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
27% of 95231 residents
101 dBA
Loudest residential point
Power saw
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 95231 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 95231 residents, or 27.4%, live above that level. By land area, 54.5% of 95231 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 95231 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 95231. Eastern 95231 carries the highest population-weighted average; Western 95231 carries the lowest. Just 58% of residents in Western 95231 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Eastern 95231.
Central 95231
51.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
0% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 95231
58.9 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
45% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 95231
50.4 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
14% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 95231
53.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
16% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 95231
49.2 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
58% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 95231 sounds about 96% louder than Western 95231 to the human ear, a 9.7 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-5 do you need to be?
I-5 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 suburban street at night.
At source
78 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
58 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
¼ mile
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
½ mile
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 0% of 95231 sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most zip codes) and roughly 9% 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 95231. 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 95231
The bar chart below shows the share of 95231 residents in each noise band. About 68% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 10% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 95231 Compares
95231 sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how 95231's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 95202, 95236, 95391, and 95258.
Average noise level (dBA)
95231's 52.9 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 95231 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 27.4% of 95231 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, 54.5% of 95231'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 95231
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-5 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 95231 is under tree cover (much lighter than most zip codes), and the dominant land cover is cultivated cropland. 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.
