Noise Levels in Del Rey Oaks, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
59 dBA
Average noise across Del Rey Oaks
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
1,361
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
74% of Del Rey Oaks residents
88 dBA
Loudest residential point
Lawnmower at 1 m
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Del Rey Oaks 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 1,361 Del Rey Oaks residents, or 74.0%, live above that level. By land area, 71.6% of Del Rey Oaks is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Del Rey Oaks residents, grouped by direction from the center of Del Rey Oaks. Southern Del Rey Oaks carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Del Rey Oaks carries the lowest. Just 76% of residents in Western Del Rey Oaks live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Southern Del Rey Oaks.
Central Del Rey Oaks
59.3 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
71% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Del Rey Oaks
59.0 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
84% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Del Rey Oaks
72.4 dBA · Loud
City bus interior
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Del Rey Oaks
58.0 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
76% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Del Rey Oaks sounds about 171% louder than Western Del Rey Oaks to the human ear, a 14.4 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 88 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 quiet office to normal conversation.
At source
88 dBA
Lawnmower at 1 m
165 ft
75 dBA
City bus interior
330 ft
67 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
660 ft
59 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
¼ mile
51 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
½ mile
43 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 15% of Del Rey Oaks sits under tree canopy (lighter than most cities) and roughly 48% 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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How Noise Is Distributed Across Del Rey Oaks
The bar chart below shows the share of Del Rey Oaks residents in each noise band. About 12% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 22% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Del Rey Oaks Compares
Del Rey Oaks sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Del Rey Oaks's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Carmel-By-The-Sea, Elkhorn, Chualar, and Carmel Valley Village.
Average noise level (dBA)
Del Rey Oaks's 59.1 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 Del Rey Oaks because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 74.0% of Del Rey Oaks 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, 71.6% of Del Rey Oaks'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 Del Rey Oaks
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 15% of Del Rey Oaks is under tree cover (lighter than most cities), 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.
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.
