Noise Levels in Mercer Heights, Mercer Island, WA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
52 dBA
Average noise across Mercer Heights
Quiet office to normal conversation
965
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
35% of Mercer Heights residents
66 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Mercer Heights 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 965 Mercer Heights residents, or 35.0%, live above that level. By land area, 42.1% of Mercer Heights is above 55 dBA.
57.9% below 55 dBA
42.1% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Mercer Heights compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Mercer Heights
Average noise levels for Mercer Heights residents, grouped by direction from the center of Mercer Heights. The highest population-weighted average is in northern Mercer Heights; the lowest is in southern Mercer Heights, where just 6% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in the loudest section.
Northern Mercer Heights
60.5 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
Northwestern Mercer Heights
55.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Northeastern Mercer Heights
51.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southeastern Mercer Heights
50.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
Southern Mercer Heights
46.9 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
To the human ear, noise in northern Mercer Heights sounds about 157% louder than in southern Mercer Heights, a 13.6 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 Island Crest Way do you need to be?
Island Crest Way produces an estimated 64 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
64 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
50 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
43 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
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 44% of Mercer Heights sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 37% 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
Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) sits southwest of Mercer Heights. 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 45 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Mercer Heights, particularly to the northeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Mercer Heights
The bar chart below shows the share of Mercer Heights residents in each noise band. About 65% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 2% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Mercer Heights Compares
Mercer Heights sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Mercer Heights's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with newport-hills-bellevue-wa, McGilvra, Madrona, and hidden-valley-bellevue-wa.
Average noise level (dBA)
Mercer Heights's 51.9 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Washington as a whole averages 51.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Mercer Heights because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 35.0% of Mercer Heights residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's fewer than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 42.1% of Mercer Heights's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Washington average of 27.7% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Mercer Heights
- 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 Island Crest Way 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 44% of Mercer Heights is under tree cover (much heavier 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. Seattle-Tacoma International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southwest. Neighborhoods to the northeast of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
