Noise Levels in Oak Creek, Irvine, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
56 dBA
Average noise across Oak Creek
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
4,161
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
46% of Oak Creek residents
85 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Oak Creek 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 4,161 Oak Creek residents, or 46.4%, live above that level. By land area, 49.4% of Oak Creek is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Oak Creek residents, grouped by direction from the center of Oak Creek. Southern Oak Creek carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern Oak Creek carries the lowest. Just 22% of residents in Northern Oak Creek live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Southern Oak Creek.
Central Oak Creek
51.1 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
21% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Oak Creek
54.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
50% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Oak Creek
49.4 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
22% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Oak Creek
74.1 dBA · Loud
City bus interior
97% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Oak Creek
62.8 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
75% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Oak Creek sounds about 454% louder than Northern Oak Creek to the human ear, a 24.7 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 I-405 do you need to be?
I-405 produces an estimated 81 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 quiet suburban street at night.
At source
81 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
67 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
330 ft
59 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
¼ mile
43 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
½ mile
36 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 6% of Oak Creek sits under tree canopy (lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 67% 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 Oak Creek. 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
John Wayne/Orange County (SNA) sits west of Oak Creek. 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 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Oak Creek, particularly to the east, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Oak Creek
The bar chart below shows the share of Oak Creek residents in each noise band. About 52% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 24% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Oak Creek Compares
Oak Creek sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Oak Creek's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Turtle Rock, Memorial Park, Irvine Health and Science Complex, and Portola Springs.
Average noise level (dBA)
Oak Creek's 56.5 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Oak Creek because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 46.4% of Oak Creek 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, 49.4% of Oak Creek's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a California average of 36.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Oak Creek
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-405 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 6% of Oak Creek is under tree cover (lighter 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. John Wayne/Orange County's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the west. Neighborhoods to the east 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.
