Noise Levels in Oakdale, Portland, ME | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
62 dBA
Average noise across Oakdale
Busy restaurant
2,461
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
81% of Oakdale residents
83 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Oakdale 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 2,461 Oakdale residents, or 80.9%, live above that level. By land area, 84.6% of Oakdale is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Oakdale residents, grouped by direction from the center of Oakdale. Southern Oakdale carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Oakdale carries the lowest. Just 79% of residents in Central Oakdale live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Southern Oakdale.
Central Oakdale
60.3 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
79% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Oakdale
62.8 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Oakdale
66.0 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
71% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Oakdale
72.5 dBA · Loud
City bus interior
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Oakdale sounds about 133% louder than Central Oakdale to the human ear, a 12.2 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-295 do you need to be?
I-295 produces an estimated 71 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
71 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
165 ft
57 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
330 ft
49 dBA
Quiet office
660 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 33% of Oakdale sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 46% 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 Oakdale. 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
Portland International Jetport (PWM) sits southwest of Oakdale. 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 Oakdale, 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 Oakdale
The bar chart below shows the share of Oakdale residents in each noise band. About 8% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 69% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Oakdale Compares
Oakdale sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Oakdale's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with East Deering, East End, Parkside, and Broadview Park.
Average noise level (dBA)
Oakdale's 62.3 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Maine as a whole averages 48.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Oakdale because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 80.9% of Oakdale 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, 84.6% of Oakdale's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Maine average of 17.5% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Oakdale
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-295 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 33% of Oakdale 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. Portland International Jetport's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southwest. Neighborhoods to the northeast 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.
