Noise Levels in Mountain View, HI | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
44 dBA
Average noise across Mountain View
Quiet suburban street at night
251
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
7% of Mountain View residents
68 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Mountain View 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 251 Mountain View residents, or 6.8%, live above that level. By land area, 10.3% of Mountain View is above 55 dBA.
89.7% below 55 dBA
10.3% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Mountain View compares to similar-sized cities.
Northern Mountain View sounds about 0% louder than Western Mountain View to the human ear, a 0.0 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.
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Loudest Road Corridors
The model evaluates every road in Mountain View 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.
RoadTypeAvg. source dBAPeak source dBA
Volcano Rd
Minor arterial
58.4
59
North Kulani Rd
Minor collector
57.6
58
S Kopua Rd
Local
55.0
55
N Pszyk Rd
Local
55.0
55
N Peck Rd
Local
55.0
55
How far back from Volcano Rd do you need to be?
Volcano Rd produces an estimated 59 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
59 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
46 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
330 ft
38 dBA
Soft rainfall
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 0% of Mountain View sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) and roughly 0% 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.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Mountain View
The bar chart below shows the share of Mountain View residents in each noise band. About 96% 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 Mountain View Compares
Mountain View sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Mountain View's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Hawaiian Beaches, Keaau, Kurtistown, and Hawaiian Paradise Park.
Average noise level (dBA)
Mountain View's 43.7 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Hawaii as a whole averages 54.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Mountain View because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 6.8% of Mountain View 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, 10.3% of Mountain View's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Hawaii average of 34.4% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Mountain View
- 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 Volcano Rd 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 Mountain View is under tree cover (about average for cities), and the dominant land cover is . 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.