Noise Levels in South Beach, OR | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

51 dBA
Average noise across South Beach
Quiet office to normal conversation
330
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
21% of South Beach residents
74 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across South Beach 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
South Beach, OR Map of Noise Levels in South Beach
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 330 South Beach residents, or 21.4%, live above that level. By land area, 24.4% of South Beach is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in South Beach compares to similar-sized cities.

Noise by Part of South Beach

Average noise levels for South Beach residents, grouped by direction from the center of South Beach. Western South Beach carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern South Beach carries the lowest. Just 8% of residents in Eastern South Beach live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Western South Beach.

Eastern South Beach

48.1 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office

8% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern South Beach

50.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office

14% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern South Beach

51.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation

25% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western South Beach

56.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

44% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Western South Beach sounds about 73% louder than Eastern South Beach to the human ear, a 7.9 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 101 do you need to be?

US Route 101 produces an estimated 64 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
64 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
52 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall

Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 51% of South Beach sits under tree canopy (heavier than most cities) and roughly 14% 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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How Noise Is Distributed Across South Beach

The bar chart below shows the share of South Beach residents in each noise band. About 82% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 1% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How South Beach Compares

South Beach sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how South Beach's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Seal Rock, Yachats, Siletz, and Depoe Bay.

Average noise level (dBA)

South Beach's 51.3 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Oregon as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than South Beach because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 21.4% of South Beach 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, 24.4% of South Beach'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 South Beach

  • 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 101 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 51% of South Beach is under tree cover (heavier than most cities), and the dominant land cover is evergreen forest. 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.

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