Noise Levels in Alameda, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
54 dBA
Average noise across Alameda
Quiet office to normal conversation
28,315
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
41% of Alameda residents
81 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Alameda 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 28,315 Alameda residents, or 40.7%, live above that level. By land area, 46.6% of Alameda is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Alameda residents, grouped by direction from the center of Alameda. Southern Alameda carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Alameda carries the lowest. Just 26% of residents in Central Alameda live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Southern Alameda.
Central Alameda
52.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
26% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Alameda
54.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
39% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Alameda
54.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Alameda
55.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
61% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Alameda
52.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
27% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Alameda sounds about 26% louder than Central Alameda to the human ear, a 3.3 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 Nimitz Fwy do you need to be?
Nimitz Fwy produces an estimated 56 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
56 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
165 ft
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
330 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 6% of Alameda sits under tree canopy (lighter than most cities) and roughly 62% 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 Alameda. 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 southeast of Alameda. 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 80 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Alameda, particularly to the northwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Alameda
The bar chart below shows the share of Alameda residents in each noise band. About 57% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 8% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Alameda Compares
Alameda sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Alameda's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with San Leandro, Richmond, Castro Valley, and South San Francisco.
Average noise level (dBA)
Alameda's 54.2 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Alameda because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 40.7% of Alameda 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, 46.6% of Alameda'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 Alameda
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 Nimitz Fwy 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 6% of Alameda is under tree cover (lighter than most cities), 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. San Francisco Bay Oakland International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southeast. Neighborhoods to the northwest 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.
