Noise Levels in East Hazel Crest, IL | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
62 dBA
Average noise across East Hazel Crest
Busy restaurant
1,040
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
82% of East Hazel Crest residents
87 dBA
Loudest residential point
Lawnmower at 1 m
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across East Hazel Crest 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 1,040 East Hazel Crest residents, or 81.6%, live above that level. By land area, 80.9% of East Hazel Crest is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for East Hazel Crest residents, grouped by direction from the center of East Hazel Crest. Western East Hazel Crest carries the highest population-weighted average; Central East Hazel Crest carries the lowest. Just 84% of residents in Central East Hazel Crest live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Western East Hazel Crest.
Central East Hazel Crest
58.8 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
84% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern East Hazel Crest
61.4 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
62% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western East Hazel Crest
66.7 dBA · Loud
Highway traffic 50 ft away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western East Hazel Crest sounds about 73% louder than Central East Hazel Crest to the human ear, a 7.9 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-80 do you need to be?
I-80 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
56 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
47 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
39 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 22% of East Hazel Crest sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) 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.
-->
Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of East Hazel Crest. For most blocks the rail-only contribution is small. Combined road-plus-rail noise rarely exceeds road noise on its own. The exceptions are the handful of blocks within roughly a quarter mile of the right-of-way during pass-through hours.
Use the Rail toggle on the map above to isolate rail's contribution from road and aviation.
Airport Noise
Chicago Midway International (MDW) sits north of East Hazel Crest. 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 East Hazel Crest, particularly to the south, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across East Hazel Crest
The bar chart below shows the share of East Hazel Crest residents in each noise band. About 7% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 44% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How East Hazel Crest Compares
East Hazel Crest sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how East Hazel Crest's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Phoenix, Ford Heights, Thornton, and Merrionette Park.
Average noise level (dBA)
East Hazel Crest's 61.7 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Illinois as a whole averages 52.6 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than East Hazel Crest because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 81.6% of East Hazel Crest 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, 80.9% of East Hazel Crest's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Illinois average of 29.2% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to East Hazel Crest
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-80 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 East Hazel Crest 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. Chicago Midway International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the north. Neighborhoods to the south 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.
