Decibel Shield

Oakland noise map: where the city is loudest

Oakland ranks fifth in the US, with 10% of residents above 60 dB and 3.6% above 70 dB. The red band hugs the flatlands along I-880, the Port of Oakland and the airport — while the hills above sit in green, one of the starkest noise-inequality gradients on any city map.

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Census-tract noise map of Oakland, CA: tracts colored green (few residents above 60 dB transportation noise) to red (half or more residents above 60 dB). The loudest tracts follow the I-880 corridor, the port, and the airport flats.
Every census tract colored by the share of its residents exposed to ≥60 dB average-day transportation noise — real values per tract from the federal BTS 2020 noise map, no interpolation.
Oakland noise exposure at a glance
US rank (of 100 largest cities) #5
Residents above 60 dB 10%
Residents above 70 dB 3.6%
Residents in the 45–60 dB band 53.1%
Population (ACS 2016–2020) 422,575
Census tracts mapped 116

Oakland’s map is really a map of its geography and its freight economy. The Port of Oakland is one of the busiest container ports in the country, and the trucks it generates run I-880 through the flatland neighborhoods of East and West Oakland. A long-standing truck ban on parallel I-580 through the hills pushes that heavy traffic onto 880 — a routing decision that environmental-justice researchers have documented for decades, and that the tract map renders in color.

Add Oakland International on the airport flats and the rail lines serving the port, and the city splits visibly in two: red and orange across the flatlands where freight, freeways and industry concentrate, green in the hill neighborhoods a few hundred feet above. Few city maps show the relationship between elevation, income and noise exposure this plainly.

Oakland noise: the specifics

  • Heavy trucks are banned from parallel I-580 through the hills, concentrating port freight traffic on I-880 through flatland neighborhoods.
  • The Port of Oakland is among the busiest container ports in the US, generating constant drayage truck traffic.
  • 3.6% of residents live above 70 dB, almost entirely in the 880 corridor and airport flats.
  • 10% of residents above 60 dB ranks #5 among the 100 largest US cities — see the full measured ranking.

How this map is made

This is a transparent aggregation of federal data, not an estimate: the BTS 2020 National Transportation Noise Map (road + rail + aviation) overlaid with Census ACS 2016–2020 population at tract level, clipped to the city boundary. Full methodology, limitations and the free CSV/JSON are on the US cities noise ranking. Remember what it doesn’t count: sirens, construction, nightlife and neighbors are outside the model.

How loud is your block?

The map shows averages by tract — your street is its own story. Measure it with the free online decibel meter → No install, nothing recorded.

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