Noise Levels in Cheesman Park, Denver, CO | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

54 dBA
Average noise across Cheesman Park
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,679
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
26% of Cheesman Park residents
66 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Cheesman 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
Cheesman Park, Denver, CO Map of Noise Levels in Cheesman Park
Click the map to explore
35 45 55 70 90
Quietest (dBA) Loudest
Colorblind friendly off

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 1,679 Cheesman Park residents, or 26.1%, live above that level. By land area, 31.6% of Cheesman Park is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Cheesman Park compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.

Noise by Part of Cheesman Park

Average noise levels for Cheesman Park residents, grouped by direction from the center of Cheesman Park. Northern Cheesman Park carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Cheesman Park carries the lowest. Just 10% of residents in Eastern Cheesman Park live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Northern Cheesman Park.

Central Cheesman Park

53.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

23% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern Cheesman Park

51.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation

10% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern Cheesman Park

59.2 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away

50% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Cheesman Park

57.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away

46% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western Cheesman Park

53.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

0% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern Cheesman Park sounds about 73% louder than Eastern Cheesman Park to the human ear, a 7.9 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 do you need to be?

produces an estimated 66 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
66 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
165 ft
53 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall

Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 13% of Cheesman Park sits under tree canopy (about average for neighborhoods) and roughly 58% 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

Denver International (DEN) sits northeast of Cheesman Park. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, 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 75 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Cheesman Park, particularly to the southwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.

How Noise Is Distributed Across Cheesman Park

The bar chart below shows the share of Cheesman Park residents in each noise band. About 72% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 7% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How Cheesman Park Compares

Cheesman Park sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Cheesman Park's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Lincoln Park, Villa Park, Baker, and City Park.

Average noise level (dBA)

Cheesman Park's 53.8 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Colorado as a whole averages 51.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Cheesman Park because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 26.1% of Cheesman Park residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's fewer than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 31.6% of Cheesman Park's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Colorado average of 25.4% and a national average of 28.1%.

What This Means if You're Moving to Cheesman 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 13% of Cheesman Park is under tree cover (about average for 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. Denver International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northeast. Neighborhoods to the southwest 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.

Federal datasets used:

FHWA Highway Performance Monitoring System: road geometry, traffic counts, lane configuration
U.S. DoT Bureau of Transportation Statistics National Transportation Noise Map: aviation and rail noise, road calibration ground truth
USGS / MRLC National Land Cover Database: land cover and impervious surface coverage
USDA Forest Service Tree Canopy Cover: vegetation density for sound propagation
U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line: block-level geography and population
U.S. EPA Levels Document: 55 dBA outdoor reference level

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.