Noise Levels in Outer Comstock, Syracuse, NY | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
56 dBA
Average noise across Outer Comstock
Quiet office to normal conversation
2,440
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
43% of Outer Comstock residents
87 dBA
Loudest residential point
Lawnmower at 1 m
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Outer Comstock 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 2,440 Outer Comstock residents, or 42.7%, live above that level. By land area, 55.4% of Outer Comstock is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Outer Comstock residents, grouped by direction from the center of Outer Comstock. Western Outer Comstock carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Outer Comstock carries the lowest. Just 23% of residents in Eastern Outer Comstock live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Western Outer Comstock.
Central Outer Comstock
53.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
21% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Outer Comstock
52.9 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
23% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Outer Comstock
56.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
55% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Outer Comstock
54.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
24% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Outer Comstock
60.5 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Outer Comstock sounds about 69% louder than Eastern Outer Comstock to the human ear, a 7.6 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 87 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 office.
At source
87 dBA
Lawnmower at 1 m
165 ft
74 dBA
City bus interior
330 ft
66 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
660 ft
58 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
¼ mile
51 dBA
Quiet office
½ mile
43 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 36% of Outer Comstock sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 32% 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 Outer Comstock. 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 north of Outer Comstock. 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 Outer Comstock, particularly to the south, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Outer Comstock
The bar chart below shows the share of Outer Comstock residents in each noise band. About 39% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 13% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Outer Comstock Compares
Outer Comstock sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Outer Comstock's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Brighton, Salt Springs, Southwest, and South Valley.
Average noise level (dBA)
Outer Comstock's 55.5 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter 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 Outer Comstock because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 42.7% of Outer Comstock 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, 55.4% of Outer Comstock'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 Outer Comstock
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 36% of Outer Comstock 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. Syracuse Hancock International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the north. Neighborhoods to the south 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.
