Noise Levels in 97006, OR | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
56 dBA
Average noise across 97006
Quiet office to normal conversation
18,403
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
43% of 97006 residents
80 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across 97006 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 18,403 97006 residents, or 43.3%, live above that level. By land area, 47.4% of 97006 is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for 97006 residents, grouped by direction from the center of 97006. Western 97006 carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern 97006 carries the lowest. Just 39% of residents in Eastern 97006 live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Western 97006.
Central 97006
54.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
35% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern 97006
54.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
39% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern 97006
56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
48% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern 97006
56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
40% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 97006
56.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
47% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western 97006 sounds about 16% louder than Eastern 97006 to the human ear, a 2.1 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 US Route 26 do you need to be?
US Route 26 produces an estimated 77 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
77 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
63 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
55 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
660 ft
47 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
39 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 22% of 97006 sits under tree canopy (about average for zip codes) and roughly 56% 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 97006. 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
Portland International (PDX) sits east of 97006. 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 50 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of 97006, particularly to the west, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across 97006
The bar chart below shows the share of 97006 residents in each noise band. About 45% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 9% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How 97006 Compares
97006 sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how 97006's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with 97123, 97007, 97124, and 97223.
Average noise level (dBA)
97006's 55.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Oregon as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than 97006 because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 43.3% of 97006 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, 47.4% of 97006's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Oregon average of 24.2% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to 97006
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 US Route 26 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 22% of 97006 is under tree cover (about average for 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.
Airport noise is directional. Portland International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the east. Neighborhoods to the west 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.
