Travel Isochrones Functionality & Dataset 🆕

Professional and Enterprise Organizations now have access to ST_Isochrone and ST_Isochrones for generating travel time isochrones.

We're also releasing the Overture Places with Isochrones dataset, which augments the original Overture Places dataset with columns that define the 5, 10, 15, and 20-minute travel time boundaries (isochrones) from each of Overture's 13.3 million Places in the United States.

Wherobots is releasing Overture Places with Isochrones under the Community Data License Agreement – Permissive, Version 2.0.

Travel Isochrone functions and new dataset are limited to Paid Organizations

Only Professional and Enterprise Edition Organizations have access to ST_Isochrone and ST_Isochrones.

For more information on Paid Organizations, see Wherobots Pricing.

If you have already decided to use a Paid Organization, see Create a new Organization or Upgrade Organization.

While standard maps show distance, isochrones visualize reach — areas accessible within a specific timeframe. Wherobots' ST_Isochrone and ST_Isochrones functions generate time-based polygons, taking into account your data and time limits.

Availability¶

The table below details the availability of ST_Isochrone, ST_Isochrones, and the Overture Places with Isochrones dataset across different editions of Wherobots Cloud.¹

Feature	Available in Professional and Enterprise Editions	Available in Community Edition
`ST_Isochrone`	✅	❌
`ST_Isochrones`	✅	❌
Overture Places with Isochrones Dataset	✅	❌

New Features¶

Isochrone Functions
- Use ST_Isochrone to generate a single polygon or multipolygon that represents the reachable area within a specified time limit.
- Use ST_Isochrones to generate an array of polygons or multipolygons, that represent the reachable areas for multiple time limits.
Dataset Enrichment
- We created a new dataset for Professional and Enterprise customers that enriches the Overture Places dataset with 4 new isochrone geometry columns - 5 minute, 10 minute, 15 minute and 20 minute isochrones.

ST_Isochrone¶

ST_Isochrone returns a single Multipolygon or Polygon representing the area reachable within a specified time.

ST_Isochrone(geometry: Geometry, time_limit: Double, mobility_type: String, inbound: Boolean)
- geometry: The starting point (or destination, if inbound is true).
- time_limit: The maximum travel time in minutes.
- mobility_type: Currently, only 'car' is supported.
- inbound: Indicates if the geometry is a destination (true) or an origin (false).

ST_Isochrone SQL example¶

When used in Wherobots Cloud, ST_Isochrone generates an isochrone polygon representing the area reachable by car.

The following example line generates an isochrone polygon within 1 minute of geometry.

-- ...Code before the ST_Isochrone call...

-- ST_Isochrone Example:
-- ST_Isochrone(geometry: Geometry, time_limit: Double, mobility_type: String, inbound: Boolean)
ST_Isochrone(geometry, 1, 'car', false)

-- ...Code after the ST_Isochrone call...

ST_Isochrones¶

ST_Isochrones returns an array of Multipolygons or an array of Polygons, each representing an isochrone for a given set of time limits.

ST_Isochrones(geometry: Geometry, time_limits: Array<Double>, mobility_type: String, inbound: Boolean, isolate_contours: Boolean)
- geometry: The starting point (or destination, if inbound is true).
- time_limits: An array of travel times in minutes (sorted in ascending order).
- mobility_type: Currently, only 'car' is supported.
- inbound: Indicates if the geometry is a destination (true) or origin (false).
- isolate_contours: If true, creates concentric rings; if false, creates overlapping isochrones.

ST_Isochrones SQL example¶

When used in Wherobots Cloud, ST_Isochrones generates a set of nested isochrone polygons representing the areas reachable by car.

This example generates nested isochrone polygons for 1, 1.5, and 2 minutes from geometry, displaying concentric rings that expand with time.

-- ...Code before the ST_Isochrones call...

-- ST_Isochrones Example:
-- ST_Isochrones(geometry: Geometry, time_limits: Array<Double>, mobility_type: String, inbound: Boolean, isolate_contours: Boolean)
ST_Isochrones(geometry, array(1, 1.5, 2), 'car', false, true)

-- ...Code after the ST_Isochrones call...

Overture Places with Isochrones¶

The Overture Places with Isochrones dataset enriches the Overture Places dataset with four new geometry columns representing 5, 10, 15 and 20 minute outbound driving isochrones. These columns provide isochrone polygons showing the areas reachable by car within those timeframes from each Overture place.

This enriched dataset facilitates the analysis of accessibility to various points of interest, including businesses, landmarks, and other significant locations, based on travel time.

Licensing¶

Access to Overture Places with Isochrones through the Wherobots Spatial Catalog requires a Professional or Enterprise Edition Organization.

The dataset itself is provided under the Community Data License Agreement – Permissive, Version 2.0, governing its use if obtained or redistributed. This dataset also carries the licenses inherited from its source data.

Real-World Applications for Increased Efficiency¶

Organizations can optimize their operations using Wherobots' travel isochrones functions to do the following:

Optimize Logistics and Delivery
- Reduce fuel consumption by identifying potential bottlenecks to optimize routes.
- Reduce delivery costs and improve on-time performance.
- Strategically assess warehouse locations for optimal coverage.
Ensure Healthcare Accessibility
- Evaluate the service area of healthcare facilities based on patient travel time.
- Identify areas with limited access to in-network providers.
- Optimize facility locations for maximum patient coverage.
Strategize Site Selection
- Make informed decisions about new locations by understanding customer and employee accessibility.
- Accurately define market areas and identify under-served regions for expansion.
Enhance Field Service Operations for Disaster Relief
- Strategize technician dispatching and response times by visualizing service areas.
Facilitate Data-Driven Market Analysis
- Understand customer catchment areas and tailor marketing campaigns based on travel time.
- Identify high-potential customer segments.

Best Practices¶

Multiple time limits from same origin? Use ST_Isochrones.
- For calculating isochrones for several time limits (e.g., 10, 20, 30 mins) from the same starting point(s), use ST_Isochrones(geometry, array(10, 20, 30), ...) for significantly better performance.
Avoid Repeated ST_Isochrone calls for the same point.
- Don't call ST_Isochrone multiple times for the same point with different times; this is very inefficient. Instead, use ST_Isochrones.
Performance Varies based on area.
- Runtimes depend on road network density and origin point clustering. Dense/complex areas take longer.

Choose Function based on the amount of time limits.

ST_Isochrone: Best for a single time limit per origin.
ST_Isochrones: Best for multiple time limits per origin.

Use this patternAvoid this pattern

-- Recommended: Efficiently generates multiple isochrones
SELECT
ST_Isochrones(geometry, array(10, 20, 30), 'car', false) AS multi_isos
FROM your_table;

-- Inefficient: Leads to repeated computations
SELECT
ST_Isochrone(geometry, 10, 'car', false) AS iso_10min,
ST_Isochrone(geometry, 20, 'car', false) AS iso_20min,
ST_Isochrone(geometry, 30, 'car', false) AS iso_30min
FROM your_table;

Read the Documentation¶

Explore the power of travel isochrones and learn how to implement them in your projects with our comprehensive documentation:

Get Started¶

🗺️ See the Functions in Action

Explore examples of both functions in our announcement blog post!

📊 Overture Places with Isochrones

Access Places data enriched with drive-time isochrone columns.

📓 Start a Notebook

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🚀 Create a Professional Organization

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If a feature is available in a given Edition, this will be indicated by ✅.
If a feature is not available in a given Edition, this will be indicated by ❌. ↩