Noise Levels in Singing Arrow, Albuquerque, NM | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

52 dBA
Average noise across Singing Arrow
Quiet office to normal conversation
911
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
22% of Singing Arrow residents
66 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Singing Arrow 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
Singing Arrow, Albuquerque, NM Map of Noise Levels in Singing Arrow
Click the map to explore
35 45 55 70 90
Quietest (dBA) Loudest
Colorblind friendly off

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 911 Singing Arrow residents, or 22.4%, live above that level. By land area, 31.0% of Singing Arrow is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Singing Arrow compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.

Noise by Part of Singing Arrow

Average noise levels for Singing Arrow residents, grouped by direction from the center of Singing Arrow. Southern Singing Arrow carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Singing Arrow carries the lowest. Just 15% of residents in Eastern Singing Arrow live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in Southern Singing Arrow.

Central Singing Arrow

52.0 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation

22% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern Singing Arrow

48.7 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office

15% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Singing Arrow

57.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away

50% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Singing Arrow sounds about 89% louder than Eastern Singing Arrow to the human ear, a 9.2 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 do you need to be?

produces an estimated 66 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
66 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
165 ft
52 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
36 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall

Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 6% of Singing Arrow sits under tree canopy (lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 60% 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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Airport Noise

Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) sits west of Singing Arrow. 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 45 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Singing Arrow, 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 Singing Arrow

The bar chart below shows the share of Singing Arrow residents in each noise band. About 90% 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 Singing Arrow Compares

Singing Arrow sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Singing Arrow's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Tijeras Arroyo, Princess Jeanne, Uptown, and South Los Altos.

Average noise level (dBA)

Singing Arrow's 52.0 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. New Mexico as a whole averages 51.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Singing Arrow because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 22.4% of Singing Arrow 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, 31.0% of Singing Arrow's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New Mexico average of 19.5% and a national average of 28.1%.

What This Means if You're Moving to Singing Arrow

  • 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 6% of Singing Arrow 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. Albuquerque International Sunport'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.