Noise Levels in Cortez Hill, San Diego, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
64 dBA
Average noise across Cortez Hill
Busy restaurant
6,787
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
100% of Cortez Hill residents
84 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Cortez Hill 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 6,787 Cortez Hill residents, or 100.0%, live above that level. By land area, 99.9% of Cortez Hill is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Cortez Hill residents, grouped by direction from the center of Cortez Hill. Eastern Cortez Hill carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Cortez Hill carries the lowest. Just 100% of residents in Western Cortez Hill live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Eastern Cortez Hill.
Central Cortez Hill
65.2 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Cortez Hill
71.2 dBA · Loud
City bus interior
98% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Cortez Hill
60.9 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Cortez Hill
60.7 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Cortez Hill
57.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Cortez Hill sounds about 166% louder than Western Cortez Hill to the human ear, a 14.1 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 San Diego Fwy do you need to be?
San Diego Fwy produces an estimated 80 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
80 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
57 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
49 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 3% of Cortez Hill sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 79% 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
San Diego International (SAN) sits west of Cortez Hill. 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 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Cortez Hill, particularly to the east, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Cortez Hill
The bar chart below shows the share of Cortez Hill residents in each noise band. About 0% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 67% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Cortez Hill Compares
Cortez Hill sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Cortez Hill's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Sherman Heights, Roseville, Bird Land, and Mount Hope.
Average noise level (dBA)
Cortez Hill's 63.6 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Cortez Hill because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 100.0% of Cortez Hill 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, 99.9% of Cortez Hill'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 Cortez Hill
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 San Diego 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 Cortez Hill is under tree cover (much lighter than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is high-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. San Diego International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the west. Neighborhoods to the east 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.
