Noise Levels in Highland Terrace, Oakland, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
54 dBA
Average noise across Highland Terrace
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,728
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
37% of Highland Terrace residents
58 dBA
Loudest residential point
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Highland 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 1,728 Highland Terrace residents, or 36.7%, live above that level. By land area, 40.1% of Highland Terrace is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Highland Terrace residents, grouped by direction from the center of Highland Terrace. Southern Highland Terrace carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern Highland Terrace carries the lowest. Just 22% of residents in Northern Highland Terrace live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Southern Highland Terrace.
Central Highland Terrace
54.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
34% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Highland Terrace
52.7 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
33% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Highland Terrace
52.4 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
22% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Highland Terrace
54.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
67% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Highland Terrace sounds about 16% louder than Northern Highland Terrace to the human ear, a 2.2 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 Macarthur Fwy do you need to be?
Macarthur Fwy produces an estimated 54 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
54 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
165 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
330 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
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 6% of Highland Terrace sits under tree canopy (lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 61% 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.
-->
Airport Noise
San Francisco Bay Oakland International (OAK) sits south of Highland 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 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Highland Terrace, particularly to the north, 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 Terrace
The bar chart below shows the share of Highland Terrace residents in each noise band. About 84% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Highland Terrace Compares
Highland Terrace sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Highland Terrace's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Clinton, Jingletown, Old City-Produce and Waterfront, and San Pablo Gateway.
Average noise level (dBA)
Highland Terrace's 53.7 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Highland Terrace because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 36.7% of Highland Terrace 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, 40.1% of Highland 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 Highland 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 Macarthur Fwy 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 6% of Highland Terrace is under tree cover (lighter 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. San Francisco Bay Oakland International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the south. Neighborhoods to the north 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.
