Noise Levels in Sommerset West-Elmonica North, Bethany, OR | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
55 dBA
Average noise across Sommerset West-Elmonica North
Quiet office to normal conversation
9,997
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
43% of Sommerset West-Elmonica North residents
82 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Sommerset West-Elmonica North 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 9,997 Sommerset West-Elmonica North residents, or 42.8%, live above that level. By land area, 47.0% of Sommerset West-Elmonica North is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Sommerset West-Elmonica North residents, grouped by direction from the center of Sommerset West-Elmonica North. Southern Sommerset West-Elmonica North carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern Sommerset West-Elmonica North carries the lowest. Just 38% of residents in Northern Sommerset West-Elmonica North live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Southern Sommerset West-Elmonica North.
Central Sommerset West-Elmonica North
54.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
48% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Sommerset West-Elmonica North
53.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
40% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Sommerset West-Elmonica North
53.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
38% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Sommerset West-Elmonica North
57.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
57% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Sommerset West-Elmonica North
54.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
34% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Sommerset West-Elmonica North sounds about 28% louder than Northern Sommerset West-Elmonica North to the human ear, a 3.6 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 US Route 26 do you need to be?
US Route 26 produces an estimated 77 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
77 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
63 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
55 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
660 ft
47 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
39 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 24% of Sommerset West-Elmonica North sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 47% 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
Portland International (PDX) sits east of Sommerset West-Elmonica North. 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 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Sommerset West-Elmonica North, particularly to the west, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Sommerset West-Elmonica North
The bar chart below shows the share of Sommerset West-Elmonica North residents in each noise band. About 61% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 12% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Sommerset West-Elmonica North Compares
Sommerset West-Elmonica North sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Sommerset West-Elmonica North's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Cooper Mountain-Aloha North, Sommerset West-Elmonica South, Bull Mountain, and Maplewood-Ashcreek.
Average noise level (dBA)
Sommerset West-Elmonica North's 54.8 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Oregon as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Sommerset West-Elmonica North because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 42.8% of Sommerset West-Elmonica North 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, 47.0% of Sommerset West-Elmonica North's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Oregon average of 24.2% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Sommerset West-Elmonica North
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 US Route 26 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 24% of Sommerset West-Elmonica North is under tree cover (heavier 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. Portland International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the east. Neighborhoods to the west 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.
