Noise Levels in Alderman Park, Jacksonville, FL | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
57 dBA
Average noise across Alderman Park
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
2,071
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
62% of Alderman Park residents
76 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Alderman Park 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 2,071 Alderman Park residents, or 62.5%, live above that level. By land area, 73.9% of Alderman Park is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Alderman Park residents, grouped by direction from the center of Alderman Park. Southern Alderman Park carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Alderman Park carries the lowest. Just 33% of residents in Central Alderman Park live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Southern Alderman Park.
Central Alderman Park
55.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
33% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Alderman Park
57.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
90% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Alderman Park
55.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
70% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Alderman Park
64.0 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
57% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Alderman Park
56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
67% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Alderman Park sounds about 83% louder than Central Alderman Park to the human ear, a 8.7 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 do you need to be?
produces an estimated 76 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
76 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
61 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
52 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
660 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 23% of Alderman Park sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 37% 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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Airport Noise
Jacksonville International (JAX) sits northwest of Alderman Park. 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 55 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Alderman Park, particularly to the southeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Alderman Park
The bar chart below shows the share of Alderman Park residents in each noise band. About 24% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 17% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Alderman Park Compares
Alderman Park sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Alderman Park's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Beacon Hills and Harbour, Tiger Hole-Secret Woods, Hidden Hills, and University Park-Jacksonville.
Average noise level (dBA)
Alderman Park's 57.1 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Florida as a whole averages 51.6 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Alderman Park because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 62.5% of Alderman Park 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, 73.9% of Alderman Park's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Florida average of 31.8% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Alderman Park
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 23% of Alderman Park is under tree cover (heavier than most neighborhoods), 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. Jacksonville International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northwest. Neighborhoods to the southeast 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.
