Noise Levels in Lincoln City, OR | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
53 dBA
Average noise across Lincoln City
Quiet office to normal conversation
2,882
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
34% of Lincoln City residents
70 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Lincoln City 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 2,882 Lincoln City residents, or 34.4%, live above that level. By land area, 40.3% of Lincoln City is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Lincoln City residents, grouped by direction from the center of Lincoln City. Western Lincoln City carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern Lincoln City carries the lowest. Just 26% of residents in Southern Lincoln City live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Western Lincoln City.
Central Lincoln City
53.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Lincoln City
53.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
37% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Lincoln City
52.0 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
26% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Lincoln City
56.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
58% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Lincoln City sounds about 40% louder than Southern Lincoln City 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 US Route 101 do you need to be?
US Route 101 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
53 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 42% of Lincoln City sits under tree canopy (heavier than most cities) and roughly 32% 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 Lincoln City
The bar chart below shows the share of Lincoln City residents in each noise band. About 70% 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 Lincoln City Compares
Lincoln City sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Lincoln City's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Newport, Sheridan, Tillamook, and Toledo.
Average noise level (dBA)
Lincoln City's 53.2 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Oregon as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Lincoln City because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 34.4% of Lincoln City 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, 40.3% of Lincoln City's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Oregon average of 24.2% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Lincoln City
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 US Route 101 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 42% of Lincoln City is under tree cover (heavier than most cities), and the dominant land cover is low-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.
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.
