Noise Levels in Medical District, Memphis, TN | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
60 dBA
Average noise across Medical District
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
2,602
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
72% of Medical District residents
81 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Medical 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
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 2,602 Medical District residents, or 72.1%, live above that level. By land area, 52.1% of Medical District is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Medical District residents, grouped by direction from the center of Medical District. Southern Medical District carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Medical District carries the lowest. Just 38% of residents in Western Medical District live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in Southern Medical District.
Central Medical District
59.7 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
87% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Medical District
57.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
76% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Medical District
59.7 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
78% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Medical District
75.7 dBA · Loud
City bus interior
97% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Medical District
53.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
38% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Medical District sounds about 369% louder than Western Medical District to the human ear, a 22.3 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-240 do you need to be?
I-240 produces an estimated 79 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 quiet suburban street at night.
At source
79 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
65 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
57 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
49 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
41 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 6% of Medical District sits under tree canopy (lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 69% 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
Memphis International (MEM) sits southeast of Medical District. 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 55 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Medical District, particularly to the northwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Medical District
The bar chart below shows the share of Medical District residents in each noise band. About 28% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 41% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Medical District Compares
Medical District sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Medical District's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with River Oaks, Crosstown, Walnut Grove - Shelby Farms PD, and four-way-bartlett-tn.
Average noise level (dBA)
Medical District's 59.9 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Tennessee as a whole averages 49.2 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Medical District because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 72.1% of Medical District residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's more than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 52.1% of Medical District's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Tennessee average of 18.7% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Medical 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 I-240 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 Medical District 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. Memphis International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southeast. Neighborhoods to the northwest 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.
