This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Minshall 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 678 Minshall Park residents, or 23.3%, live above that level. By land area, 30.5% of Minshall Park is above 55 dBA.
See how noise in Minshall Park compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Minshall Park
Average noise levels for Minshall Park residents, grouped by direction from the center of Minshall Park. The highest population-weighted average is in northwestern Minshall Park; the lowest is in central Minshall Park, where just 22% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in the loudest section.
Northwestern Minshall Park
31% of people above 55 dBA
Southern Minshall Park
32% of people above 55 dBA
Southeastern Minshall Park
32% of people above 55 dBA
Central Minshall Park
22% of people above 55 dBA
To the human ear, noise in northwestern Minshall Park sounds about 24% louder than in central Minshall Park, a 3.1 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 Noise Is Distributed Across Minshall Park
The bar chart below shows the share of Minshall Park residents in each noise band. About 88% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Minshall Park Compares
Minshall Park sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Minshall Park's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with oral-roberts-university-heights-tulsa-ok, longview-lake-estates-tulsa-ok, Mayo Meadow, and McClure Park.
Average noise level (dBA)
Minshall Park's 51.8 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Oklahoma as a whole averages 50.5 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Minshall Park because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 23.3% of Minshall 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, 30.5% of Minshall Park's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Oklahoma average of 22.7% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Minshall 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 East 71ST St 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 17% of Minshall Park is under tree cover (about average for 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.
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.