Noise Levels in Bagley Downs, Vancouver, WA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
59 dBA
Average noise across Bagley Downs
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
3,772
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
47% of Bagley Downs residents
77 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Bagley Downs 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 3,772 Bagley Downs residents, or 46.9%, live above that level. By land area, 57.9% of Bagley Downs is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Bagley Downs residents, grouped by direction from the center of Bagley Downs. Northern Bagley Downs carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Bagley Downs carries the lowest. Just 37% of residents in Central Bagley Downs live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Northern Bagley Downs.
Central Bagley Downs
57.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
37% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Bagley Downs
57.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
50% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Bagley Downs
64.2 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
60% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Bagley Downs
58.5 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Bagley Downs
62.6 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
62% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Bagley Downs sounds about 61% louder than Central Bagley Downs to the human ear, a 6.9 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 SR-500 do you need to be?
SR-500 produces an estimated 73 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
73 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
59 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
330 ft
52 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
660 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
¼ mile
36 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 19% of Bagley Downs sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 51% 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
Portland International (PDX) sits south of Bagley Downs. 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 Bagley Downs, particularly to the north, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Bagley Downs
The bar chart below shows the share of Bagley Downs residents in each noise band. About 14% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 28% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Bagley Downs Compares
Bagley Downs sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Bagley Downs's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Van Mall, Northeast Hazel Dell, Landover-Sharmel, and Fircrest.
Average noise level (dBA)
Bagley Downs's 58.7 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Washington as a whole averages 51.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Bagley Downs because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 46.9% of Bagley Downs 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, 57.9% of Bagley Downs's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Washington average of 27.7% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Bagley Downs
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 SR-500 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 19% of Bagley Downs is under tree cover (heavier 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. Portland International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the south. Neighborhoods to the north 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.
