Noise Levels in Greater Oakhill, Evansville, IN | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
52 dBA
Average noise across Greater Oakhill
Quiet office to normal conversation
819
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
23% of Greater Oakhill residents
67 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Greater Oakhill 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.
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 819 Greater Oakhill residents, or 23.0%, live above that level. By land area, 25.3% of Greater Oakhill is above 55 dBA.
74.7% below 55 dBA
25.3% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Greater Oakhill compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Greater Oakhill
Average noise levels for Greater Oakhill residents, grouped by direction from the center of Greater Oakhill. The highest population-weighted average is in northern Greater Oakhill; the lowest is in southern Greater Oakhill, where just 19% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in the loudest section.
Northern Greater Oakhill
58.0 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
Northeastern Greater Oakhill
57.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
Southeastern Greater Oakhill
54.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Central Greater Oakhill
54.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southern Greater Oakhill
52.9 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
To the human ear, noise in northern Greater Oakhill sounds about 42% louder than in southern Greater Oakhill, a 5.1 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 Oak Hill Rd do you need to be?
Oak Hill Rd produces an estimated 61 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
61 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
48 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
41 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 37% of Greater Oakhill sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 21% 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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Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of Greater Oakhill. 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.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Greater Oakhill
The bar chart below shows the share of Greater Oakhill residents in each noise band. About 75% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 1% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Greater Oakhill Compares
Greater Oakhill sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Greater Oakhill's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Jacobsville, A.C.T., diamond-stringtown-evansville-in, and lorraine-park-evansville-in.
Average noise level (dBA)
Greater Oakhill's 52.1 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Indiana as a whole averages 53.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Greater Oakhill because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 23.0% of Greater Oakhill 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, 25.3% of Greater Oakhill's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Indiana average of 37.8% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Greater Oakhill
- 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 Oak Hill Rd 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 37% of Greater Oakhill is under tree cover (much heavier 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.
