Noise Levels in Golf Course Terrace, Sacramento, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
57 dBA
Average noise across Golf Course Terrace
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
2,956
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
66% of Golf Course Terrace residents
87 dBA
Loudest residential point
Lawnmower at 1 m
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Golf Course Terrace 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 2,956 Golf Course Terrace residents, or 66.3%, live above that level. By land area, 69.6% of Golf Course Terrace is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Golf Course Terrace residents, grouped by direction from the center of Golf Course Terrace. Northern Golf Course Terrace carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Golf Course Terrace carries the lowest. Just 52% of residents in Central Golf Course Terrace live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Northern Golf Course Terrace.
Central Golf Course Terrace
55.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
52% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Golf Course Terrace
56.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
86% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Golf Course Terrace
60.1 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
97% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Golf Course Terrace
57.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
57% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Golf Course Terrace
57.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
60% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Golf Course Terrace sounds about 40% louder than Central Golf Course Terrace to the human ear, a 4.9 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 do you need to be?
produces an estimated 87 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.
At source
87 dBA
Lawnmower at 1 m
165 ft
73 dBA
City bus interior
330 ft
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
660 ft
56 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
¼ mile
48 dBA
Quiet office
½ mile
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 3% of Golf Course Terrace sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 49% 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
Sacramento International (SMF) sits north of Golf Course Terrace. 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 85 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Golf Course Terrace, 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 Golf Course Terrace
The bar chart below shows the share of Golf Course Terrace residents in each noise band. About 28% 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 Golf Course Terrace Compares
Golf Course Terrace sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Golf Course Terrace's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Upper Land Park, Csus, Central Oak Park, and Northeast Village.
Average noise level (dBA)
Golf Course Terrace's 57.0 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Golf Course Terrace because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 66.3% of Golf Course Terrace 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, 69.6% of Golf Course Terrace'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 Golf Course Terrace
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 3% of Golf Course Terrace is under tree cover (much lighter than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is low-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. Sacramento 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.
