This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Oakland Gardens 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 21,608 Oakland Gardens residents, or 68.4%, live above that level. By land area, 81.0% of Oakland Gardens is above 55 dBA.
See how noise in Oakland Gardens compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Oakland Gardens
Average noise levels for Oakland Gardens residents, grouped by direction from the center of Oakland Gardens. Western Oakland Gardens carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern Oakland Gardens carries the lowest. Just 47% of residents in Southern Oakland Gardens live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Western Oakland Gardens.
Central Oakland Gardens
67% of people above 55 dBA
Eastern Oakland Gardens
73% of people above 55 dBA
Northern Oakland Gardens
82% of people above 55 dBA
Southern Oakland Gardens
47% of people above 55 dBA
Western Oakland Gardens
88% of people above 55 dBA
Western Oakland Gardens sounds about 55% louder than Southern Oakland Gardens to the human ear, a 6.3 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.
Loudest Road Corridors
The model evaluates every road in Oakland Gardens 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.
How far back from Clearview Expy do you need to be?
Clearview Expy produces an estimated 78 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.
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 15% of Oakland Gardens sits under tree canopy (about average for neighborhoods) and roughly 63% 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.
Airport Noise
Laguardia (LGA) sits west of Oakland Gardens. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, 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 45 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Oakland Gardens, 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 Oakland Gardens
The bar chart below shows the share of Oakland Gardens residents in each noise band. About 19% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 28% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Oakland Gardens Compares
Oakland Gardens sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Oakland Gardens's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Auburndale, Middle Village, Fresh Meadows, and Douglaston-Little Neck.
Average noise level (dBA)
Oakland Gardens's 58.4 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. New York as a whole averages 55.4 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Oakland Gardens because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 68.4% of Oakland Gardens residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's fewer than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 81.0% of Oakland Gardens'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 Oakland Gardens
- 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 Clearview Expy 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 15% of Oakland Gardens 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.
- Airport noise is directional. Laguardia'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.
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.