Noise Levels in Highland Park, NJ | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
51 dBA
Average noise across Highland Park
Quiet office
2,290
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
23% of Highland Park residents
97 dBA
Loudest residential point
Power saw
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Highland Park 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 2,290 Highland Park residents, or 23.3%, live above that level. By land area, 26.2% of Highland Park is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Highland Park residents, grouped by direction from the center of Highland Park. Western Highland Park carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Highland Park carries the lowest. Just 18% of residents in Eastern Highland Park live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Western Highland Park.
Central Highland Park
47.2 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
13% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Highland Park
45.7 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
18% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Highland Park
52.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
25% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Highland Park
46.6 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
10% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Highland Park
59.1 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
40% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Highland Park sounds about 153% louder than Eastern Highland Park to the human ear, a 13.4 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 Nj 27 do you need to be?
Nj 27 produces an estimated 65 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
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
52 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
38 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 30% of Highland Park sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) and roughly 45% 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 Highland Park. 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
Newark Liberty International (EWR) sits northeast of Highland Park. 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 Highland Park, particularly to the southwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Highland Park
The bar chart below shows the share of Highland Park residents in each noise band. About 72% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 12% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Highland Park Compares
Highland Park sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Highland Park's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with East Franklin, South River, Sayreville, and Middlesex.
Average noise level (dBA)
Highland Park's 51.0 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. New Jersey as a whole averages 49.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Highland Park because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 23.3% of Highland Park 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, 26.2% of Highland Park'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 Highland Park
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 Nj 27 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 30% of Highland Park is under tree cover (about average for 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. Newark Liberty International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northeast. Neighborhoods to the southwest 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.
