Noise Levels in Near Westside, Syracuse, NY | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
57 dBA
Average noise across Near Westside
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
2,709
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
60% of Near Westside residents
79 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Near Westside 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 2,709 Near Westside residents, or 60.0%, live above that level. By land area, 55.1% of Near Westside is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Near Westside residents, grouped by direction from the center of Near Westside. Southern Near Westside carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Near Westside carries the lowest. Just 56% of residents in Western Near Westside live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Southern Near Westside.
Central Near Westside
56.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
61% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Near Westside
57.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
40% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Near Westside
56.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
53% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Near Westside
58.0 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
72% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Near Westside
55.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
56% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Near Westside sounds about 21% louder than Western Near Westside to the human ear, a 2.7 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 do you need to be?
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 soft rainfall.
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
48 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 27% of Near Westside sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 48% 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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Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of Near Westside. For most blocks the rail-only contribution is small. Combined road-plus-rail noise rarely exceeds road noise on its own. The exceptions are the handful of blocks within roughly a quarter mile of the right-of-way during pass-through hours.
Use the Rail toggle on the map above to isolate rail's contribution from road and aviation.
Airport Noise
Syracuse Hancock International (SYR) sits northeast of Near Westside. 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 Near Westside, particularly to the southwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Near Westside
The bar chart below shows the share of Near Westside residents in each noise band. About 21% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 16% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Near Westside Compares
Near Westside sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Near Westside's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Southwest, Near Eastside, Strathmore, and Meadowbrook.
Average noise level (dBA)
Near Westside's 56.9 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. New York as a whole averages 55.4 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Near Westside because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 60.0% of Near Westside 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, 55.1% of Near Westside's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New York average of 30.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Near Westside
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 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 27% of Near Westside is under tree cover (heavier 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. Syracuse Hancock International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northeast. Neighborhoods to the southwest 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.
