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Travel Isochrones Functionality 🆕

Paid Organizations1 now have access to ST_Isochrone and ST_Isochrones for generating travel time isochrones.

Travel Isochrone functions 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 on using 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

Feature Available in Professional
and Enterprise Editions		 Available in
Community Edition
ST_Isochrone ✅ ❌
ST_Isochrones ✅ ❌

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.

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...

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 Times 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.
  • Performance Varies: Runtimes depend on road network density and origin point clustering. Dense/complex areas take longer.

  • Choose Function:

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

  1. 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 ❌. ↩