Noise Levels in Arleta, Pacoima, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
57 dBA
Average noise across Arleta
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
21,757
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
50% of Arleta residents
88 dBA
Loudest residential point
Lawnmower at 1 m
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Arleta 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 21,757 Arleta residents, or 49.9%, live above that level. By land area, 53.2% of Arleta is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Arleta residents, grouped by direction from the center of Arleta. Northern Arleta carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Arleta carries the lowest. Just 35% of residents in Western Arleta live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Northern Arleta.
Central Arleta
56.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
49% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Arleta
57.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
54% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Arleta
61.3 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
87% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Arleta
55.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
37% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Arleta
54.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
35% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Arleta sounds about 65% louder than Western Arleta to the human ear, a 7.2 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 Golden State Fwy do you need to be?
Golden State Fwy produces an estimated 81 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
81 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
49 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
41 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 3% of Arleta sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 59% 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
Bob Hope (BUR) sits southeast of Arleta. 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 Arleta, 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 Arleta
The bar chart below shows the share of Arleta residents in each noise band. About 51% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 27% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Arleta Compares
Arleta sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Arleta's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Beverly Glen, Mid City West, Sawtelle, and Pico-Robertson.
Average noise level (dBA)
Arleta's 56.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Arleta because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 49.9% of Arleta 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, 53.2% of Arleta'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 Arleta
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 Golden State 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 3% of Arleta is under tree cover (much lighter than most neighborhoods), 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. Bob Hope'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.
