Noise Levels in Highlands Historic District, State College, PA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

55 dBA
Average noise across Highlands Historic District
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,972
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
46% of Highlands Historic District residents
66 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Highlands Historic District 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
Highlands Historic District, State College, PA Map of Noise Levels in Highlands Historic District
Click the map to explore
35 45 55 70 90
Quietest (dBA) Loudest
Colorblind friendly off

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 1,972 Highlands Historic District residents, or 46.1%, live above that level. By land area, 37.1% of Highlands Historic District is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Highlands Historic District compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.

Noise by Part of Highlands Historic District

Average noise levels for Highlands Historic District residents, grouped by direction from the center of Highlands Historic District. Northern Highlands Historic District carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Highlands Historic District carries the lowest. Just 36% of residents in Central Highlands Historic District live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Northern Highlands Historic District.

Central Highlands Historic District

54.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

36% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern Highlands Historic District

54.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

41% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern Highlands Historic District

56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

57% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Highlands Historic District

55.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

74% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western Highlands Historic District

55.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

55% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern Highlands Historic District sounds about 12% louder than Central Highlands Historic District to the human ear, a 1.6 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 66 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
66 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 19% of Highlands Historic District 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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How Noise Is Distributed Across Highlands Historic District

The bar chart below shows the share of Highlands Historic District residents in each noise band. About 45% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 7% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How Highlands Historic District Compares

Highlands Historic District sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Highlands Historic District's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Holmes-Foster Historic District, Dogtown, Hall Manor, and Midtown Harrisburg.

Average noise level (dBA)

Highlands Historic District's 55.0 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Pennsylvania as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Highlands Historic District because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 46.1% of Highlands Historic District 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, 37.1% of Highlands Historic District's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Pennsylvania average of 33.5% and a national average of 28.1%.

What This Means if You're Moving to Highlands Historic District

  • 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 19% of Highlands Historic District 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.

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.

Federal datasets used:

FHWA Highway Performance Monitoring System: road geometry, traffic counts, lane configuration
U.S. DoT Bureau of Transportation Statistics National Transportation Noise Map: aviation and rail noise, road calibration ground truth
USGS / MRLC National Land Cover Database: land cover and impervious surface coverage
USDA Forest Service Tree Canopy Cover: vegetation density for sound propagation
U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line: block-level geography and population
U.S. EPA Levels Document: 55 dBA outdoor reference level

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.

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