Noise Levels in Downer Woods, Milwaukee, WI | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
55 dBA
Average noise across Downer Woods
Quiet office to normal conversation
2,177
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
47% of Downer Woods residents
68 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Downer Woods 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 2,177 Downer Woods residents, or 47.1%, live above that level. By land area, 73.0% of Downer Woods is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Downer Woods residents, grouped by direction from the center of Downer Woods. Southern Downer Woods carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Downer Woods carries the lowest. Just 41% of residents in Central Downer Woods live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Southern Downer Woods.
Central Downer Woods
54.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
41% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Downer Woods
58.1 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
61% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Downer Woods
60.6 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Downer Woods
58.4 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
91% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Downer Woods sounds about 57% louder than Central Downer Woods to the human ear, a 6.5 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 68 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
68 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
165 ft
55 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
47 dBA
Quiet office
660 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 22% of Downer Woods sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 42% 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
General Mitchell International (MKE) sits south of Downer Woods. 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 Downer Woods, 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 Downer Woods
The bar chart below shows the share of Downer Woods residents in each noise band. About 66% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 15% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Downer Woods Compares
Downer Woods sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Downer Woods's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with North Division, Park West, Northpoint, and Juneau Town.
Average noise level (dBA)
Downer Woods's 54.8 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Wisconsin as a whole averages 53.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Downer Woods because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 47.1% of Downer Woods 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, 73.0% of Downer Woods's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Wisconsin average of 29.6% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Downer Woods
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 22% of Downer Woods is under tree cover (heavier than most neighborhoods), 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. General Mitchell 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.
