Noise Levels in Cheltenham, MD | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
49 dBA
Average noise across Cheltenham
Quiet office
215
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
19% of Cheltenham residents
59 dBA
Loudest residential point
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Cheltenham 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 215 Cheltenham residents, or 18.9%, live above that level. By land area, 21.7% of Cheltenham is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Cheltenham residents, grouped by direction from the center of Cheltenham. Northern Cheltenham carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern Cheltenham carries the lowest. Just 0% of residents in Southern Cheltenham live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Northern Cheltenham.
Central Cheltenham
51.1 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
25% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Cheltenham
50.9 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
16% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Cheltenham
54.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
75% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Cheltenham
38.9 dBA · Quiet
Soft rainfall
0% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Cheltenham
48.5 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
11% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Cheltenham sounds about 199% louder than Southern Cheltenham to the human ear, a 15.8 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 59 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
59 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
330 ft
37 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 35% of Cheltenham sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) and roughly 16% 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
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl (DCA) sits northwest of Cheltenham. 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 Cheltenham, 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 Cheltenham
The bar chart below shows the share of Cheltenham residents in each noise band. About 100% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Cheltenham Compares
Cheltenham sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Cheltenham's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Colmar Manor, Cottage City, Croom, and Bel Alton.
Average noise level (dBA)
Cheltenham's 49.3 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Maryland as a whole averages 52.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Cheltenham because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 18.9% of Cheltenham 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, 21.7% of Cheltenham's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Maryland average of 32.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Cheltenham
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 35% of Cheltenham is under tree cover (about average for cities), and the dominant land cover is low-density developed open space. 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. Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl'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.
