Noise Levels in Keansburg, NJ | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

48 dBA
Average noise across Keansburg
Quiet office
1,019
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
12% of Keansburg residents
70 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Keansburg 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
Keansburg, NJ Map of Noise Levels in Keansburg
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 1,019 Keansburg residents, or 12.4%, live above that level. By land area, 14.3% of Keansburg is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Keansburg compares to similar-sized cities.

Noise by Part of Keansburg

Average noise levels for Keansburg residents, grouped by direction from the center of Keansburg. Western Keansburg carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Keansburg carries the lowest. Just 15% of residents in Eastern Keansburg live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Western Keansburg.

Central Keansburg

46.8 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office

11% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern Keansburg

45.7 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet suburban street at night

15% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern Keansburg

46.9 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office

11% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Keansburg

47.8 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office

14% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western Keansburg

50.6 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office

10% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western Keansburg sounds about 40% louder than Eastern Keansburg to the human ear, a 4.9 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 Laurel Ave do you need to be?

Laurel Ave produces an estimated 59 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
59 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
330 ft
37 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 24% of Keansburg sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) and roughly 46% 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

Newark Liberty International (EWR) sits north of Keansburg. 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 Keansburg, particularly to the south, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.

How Noise Is Distributed Across Keansburg

The bar chart below shows the share of Keansburg residents in each noise band. About 84% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 5% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How Keansburg Compares

Keansburg sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Keansburg's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Keyport, Colts Neck, Morganville, and West Long Branch.

Average noise level (dBA)

Keansburg's 47.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. New Jersey as a whole averages 49.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Keansburg because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 12.4% of Keansburg 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, 14.3% of Keansburg'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 Keansburg

  • 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 Laurel Ave 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 24% of Keansburg 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 north. Neighborhoods to the south 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.

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.