This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Menlo Park 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.
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 2,304 Menlo Park residents, or 49.9%, live above that level. By land area, 61.0% of Menlo Park is above 55 dBA.
See how noise in Menlo Park compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Menlo Park
Average noise levels for Menlo Park residents, grouped by direction from the center of Menlo Park. Eastern Menlo Park carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Menlo Park carries the lowest. Just 50% of residents in Central Menlo Park live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Eastern Menlo Park.
Central Menlo Park
50% of people above 55 dBA
Eastern Menlo Park
94% of people above 55 dBA
Northern Menlo Park
34% of people above 55 dBA
Southern Menlo Park
54% of people above 55 dBA
Western Menlo Park
35% of people above 55 dBA
Eastern Menlo Park sounds about 80% louder than Central Menlo Park to the human ear, a 8.5 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.
Loudest Road Corridors
The model evaluates every road in Menlo Park using federal traffic counts, posted speeds, heavy-truck ratios, and pavement type. The source level shown is the modeled noise at the road centerline, where it is loudest. Noise drops with distance, faster in vegetated areas and slower over open pavement.
How far back from I-10 do you need to be?
I-10 produces an estimated 68 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.
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 0% of Menlo Park sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most neighborhoods) 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.
Airport Noise
Tucson International (TUS) sits south of Menlo Park. 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 Menlo Park, 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 Menlo Park
The bar chart below shows the share of Menlo Park residents in each noise band. About 33% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 14% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Menlo Park Compares
Menlo Park sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Menlo Park's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Palo Verde, Julia Keen, Sam Hughes, and Westside Development.
Average noise level (dBA)
Menlo Park's 56.1 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Arizona as a whole averages 53.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Menlo Park because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 49.9% of Menlo Park 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, 61.0% of Menlo Park's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Arizona average of 28.3% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Menlo Park
- 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-10 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 0% of Menlo Park is under tree cover (much lighter than most neighborhoods), 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.
- Airport noise is directional. Tucson 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.
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.