Noise Levels in Downtown Riverfront-190th, Bothell, WA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
58 dBA
Average noise across Downtown Riverfront-190th
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
2,245
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
43% of Downtown Riverfront-190th residents
82 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Downtown Riverfront-190th 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
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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 2,245 Downtown Riverfront-190th residents, or 43.3%, live above that level. By land area, 53.1% of Downtown Riverfront-190th is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Downtown Riverfront-190th residents, grouped by direction from the center of Downtown Riverfront-190th. Eastern Downtown Riverfront-190th carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern Downtown Riverfront-190th carries the lowest. Just 10% of residents in Southern Downtown Riverfront-190th live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Eastern Downtown Riverfront-190th.
Central Downtown Riverfront-190th
62.7 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
88% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Downtown Riverfront-190th
69.6 dBA · Loud
Highway traffic 50 ft away
74% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Downtown Riverfront-190th
52.7 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
29% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Downtown Riverfront-190th
50.4 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
10% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Downtown Riverfront-190th
59.8 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Downtown Riverfront-190th sounds about 278% louder than Southern Downtown Riverfront-190th to the human ear, a 19.2 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 I-405 do you need to be?
I-405 produces an estimated 78 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
78 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
64 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
56 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
49 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
41 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 40% of Downtown Riverfront-190th sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 36% 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
Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) sits south of Downtown Riverfront-190th. 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 Downtown Riverfront-190th, 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 Downtown Riverfront-190th
The bar chart below shows the share of Downtown Riverfront-190th residents in each noise band. About 50% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 33% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Downtown Riverfront-190th Compares
Downtown Riverfront-190th sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Downtown Riverfront-190th's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Upper West Ridge, Town Center, Waynita-Simonds-Norway Hill, and North Redmond.
Average noise level (dBA)
Downtown Riverfront-190th's 57.5 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Washington as a whole averages 51.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Downtown Riverfront-190th because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 43.3% of Downtown Riverfront-190th 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, 53.1% of Downtown Riverfront-190th's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Washington average of 27.7% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Downtown Riverfront-190th
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 I-405 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 40% of Downtown Riverfront-190th is under tree cover (much 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. Seattle-Tacoma 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.
