This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Park Forest Village 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 1,689 Park Forest Village residents, or 20.2%, live above that level. By land area, 19.2% of Park Forest Village is above 55 dBA.
See how noise in Park Forest Village compares to similar-sized cities.
Noise by Part of Park Forest Village
Average noise levels for Park Forest Village residents, grouped by direction from the center of Park Forest Village. The highest population-weighted average is in central Park Forest Village; the lowest is in southwestern Park Forest Village, where just 11% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about half the share in the loudest section.
Central Park Forest Village
23% of people above 55 dBA
Northwestern Park Forest Village
21% of people above 55 dBA
Northern Park Forest Village
18% of people above 55 dBA
Northeastern Park Forest Village
12% of people above 55 dBA
Southwestern Park Forest Village
11% of people above 55 dBA
To the human ear, noise in central Park Forest Village sounds about 27% louder than in southwestern Park Forest Village, a 3.4 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 Noise Is Distributed Across Park Forest Village
The bar chart below shows the share of Park Forest Village residents in each noise band. About 81% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Park Forest Village Compares
Park Forest Village sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Park Forest Village's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Port Matilda, University Park, Boalsburg, and Tyrone.
Average noise level (dBA)
Park Forest Village's 52.2 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Pennsylvania as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Park Forest Village because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 20.2% of Park Forest Village 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, 19.2% of Park Forest Village's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Pennsylvania average of 33.5% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Park Forest Village
- 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 North Atherton St 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 Park Forest Village is under tree cover (about average for cities), and the dominant land cover is low-density developed open space. 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.
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.