Noise Levels in Edgewater, NJ | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
52 dBA
Average noise across Edgewater
Quiet office to normal conversation
3,841
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
26% of Edgewater residents
70 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Edgewater 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 3,841 Edgewater residents, or 25.6%, live above that level. By land area, 34.0% of Edgewater is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Edgewater residents, grouped by direction from the center of Edgewater. Eastern Edgewater carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern Edgewater carries the lowest. Just 27% of residents in Southern Edgewater live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Eastern Edgewater.
Central Edgewater
57.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
33% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Edgewater
58.7 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
22% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Edgewater
50.9 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
22% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Edgewater
50.0 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
27% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Edgewater sounds about 83% louder than Southern Edgewater to the human ear, a 8.7 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 Route 505 do you need to be?
Route 505 produces an estimated 67 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
67 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
165 ft
54 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
47 dBA
Quiet office
660 ft
39 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 14% of Edgewater sits under tree canopy (lighter than most cities) and roughly 69% 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
Laguardia (LGA) sits southeast of Edgewater. 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 Edgewater, particularly to the northwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Edgewater
The bar chart below shows the share of Edgewater residents in each noise band. About 58% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 21% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Edgewater Compares
Edgewater sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Edgewater's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Weehawken, Cliffside Park, Palisades Park, and North Arlington.
Average noise level (dBA)
Edgewater's 51.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. New Jersey as a whole averages 49.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Edgewater because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 25.6% of Edgewater residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 34.0% of Edgewater's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New Jersey average of 25.2% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Edgewater
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 Route 505 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 14% of Edgewater 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.
Airport noise is directional. Laguardia's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southeast. Neighborhoods to the northwest 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.
