Noise Levels in Highland, Rochester, NY | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
58 dBA
Average noise across Highland
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
2,445
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
43% of Highland residents
78 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Highland 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 2,445 Highland residents, or 42.6%, live above that level. By land area, 52.6% of Highland is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Highland residents, grouped by direction from the center of Highland. Southern Highland carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Highland carries the lowest. Just 22% of residents in Eastern Highland live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Southern Highland.
Central Highland
56.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
48% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Highland
50.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
22% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Highland
55.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
23% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Highland
60.4 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
59% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Highland
60.0 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
49% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Highland sounds about 101% louder than Eastern Highland to the human ear, a 10.1 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 I-390 do you need to be?
I-390 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
53 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 21% of Highland sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 52% 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
Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester International (ROC) sits west of Highland. 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 50 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Highland, particularly to the east, 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
The bar chart below shows the share of Highland residents in each noise band. About 35% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 27% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Highland Compares
Highland sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Highland's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with La Avenida, North Marketview Heights, East Avenue, and Culver-Winton.
Average noise level (dBA)
Highland's 57.5 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. New York as a whole averages 55.4 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Highland because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 42.6% of Highland 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, 52.6% of Highland's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New York average of 30.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Highland
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-390 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 21% of Highland is under tree cover (heavier than most neighborhoods), 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. Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the west. Neighborhoods to the east 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.
