Noise Levels in Tree Streets, Provo, UT | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

54 dBA
Average noise across Tree Streets
Quiet office to normal conversation
2,152
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
41% of Tree Streets residents
66 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away

This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Tree Streets 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
Tree Streets, Provo, UT Map of Noise Levels in Tree Streets
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 2,152 Tree Streets residents, or 41.0%, live above that level. By land area, 40.5% of Tree Streets is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Tree Streets compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.

Noise by Part of Tree Streets

Average noise levels for Tree Streets residents, grouped by direction from the center of Tree Streets. Southern Tree Streets carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Tree Streets carries the lowest. Just 6% of residents in Eastern Tree Streets live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Southern Tree Streets.

Central Tree Streets

54.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

40% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Eastern Tree Streets

50.0 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office

6% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Northern Tree Streets

53.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation

31% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Tree Streets

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

63% of people above 55 dBA

QuietLoud

Southern Tree Streets sounds about 53% louder than Eastern Tree Streets to the human ear, a 6.1 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
43 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall

Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 8% of Tree Streets sits under tree canopy (lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 53% 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

Provo Municipal (PVU) sits west of Tree Streets. 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 Tree Streets, 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 Tree Streets

The bar chart below shows the share of Tree Streets residents in each noise band. About 55% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 5% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How Tree Streets Compares

Tree Streets sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Tree Streets's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with North Park, Bonneville, Provo South, and Sharon.

Average noise level (dBA)

Tree Streets's 54.4 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Utah as a whole averages 53.1 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Tree Streets because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 41.0% of Tree Streets 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, 40.5% of Tree Streets's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Utah average of 25.8% and a national average of 28.1%.

What This Means if You're Moving to Tree Streets

  • 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 8% of Tree Streets 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. Provo Municipal'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.