TravelTime is a powerful tool designed to help you visualize and analyze how far you can travel within a specific time frame. Whether you’re using public transport or driving, our API offers precise Travel Time calculations. However, users sometimes encounter situations where the results seem unexpected. This article addresses some frequently asked questions to clarify how TravelTime calculates travel time and how to best utilize its features.
Public Transport Travel Time: Why Transit Lines Might Not Appear
When analyzing public transport options, you might notice that a specific transit line you expect to be included isn’t showing up in your results. It’s unlikely that this is due to missing data, as we have a dedicated data team ensuring comprehensive transport data collection. The reason often lies in how travel time catchments are calculated.
Our system considers the entire journey, not just the time spent on the train or bus. A travel time calculation includes:
- Walking time to the station platform: The time it takes to walk from your starting point to the actual platform.
- Waiting time for the next departure: The scheduled waiting time for the next available train or bus.
- Boarding time: A short buffer for boarding the vehicle.
- Journey time (A to B): The actual travel time between stations.
- Alighting and exiting at the destination station: Time to get off the transport and exit the station.
Therefore, if you set a maximum travel time of 30 minutes and the train journey itself is 28 minutes, it might not be included in the catchment area. The additional time for walking, waiting, and boarding can easily push the total travel time over your 30-minute limit.
Expanding Your Travel Time to Include More Transit Options
If you believe a particular transit option should be included, try increasing your maximum travel time slightly. Adding an extra 5-10 minutes to your catchment area can often resolve this issue and provide a more complete picture of your public transport accessibility. For a deeper understanding of our methodology, you can explore how we built our public transport model.
Driving Travel Time: Addressing Driving Distance Discrepancies
Users sometimes question the driving time estimations, noting discrepancies compared to other mapping applications. You might think you can drive further than our tool indicates, or conversely, that our estimations seem too short.
It’s important to understand that most standard mapping providers offer broad driving time ranges, often providing estimations with a significant buffer. It’s not unusual to see a journey estimate ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours for the same route on these platforms.
TravelTime’s Driving Model Accuracy
In contrast, TravelTime’s driving model is designed to provide a single, optimized, and highly accurate time estimate. We achieve this accuracy using a purpose-built driving model that considers various factors to determine the most realistic travel time. You can learn more about the intricacies of our approach by exploring how we’ve built our driving model.
Key Features and Use Cases of Travel Time Maps
Travel time maps, sometimes referred to incorrectly as “travel time radius maps,” are powerful visualizations that show all reachable locations within a specified travel time and mode of transport from a given starting point. Unlike a simple radius, which is a circle, a travel time shape is unique and precisely reflects the actual reachable area based on the transportation network.
Creating Travel Time Maps with TravelTime
Creating your own travel time map is straightforward:
- Select a start location: Define your origin point.
- Select a maximum travel time limit: Specify your desired travel duration (e.g., 30 minutes, 1 hour).
- Select a mode of transport: Choose your preferred mode, such as driving, public transport, walking, or cycling.
- Visualize your map: TravelTime instantly generates a map showing the area reachable within your specified time.
Use Cases for Consumers: Optimizing Personal Travel
For individual users, travel time maps offer numerous practical applications:
- Commute Time Mapping: Determine ideal residential locations based on your desired commute time to work or other destinations.
- Transport Coverage Comparison: Compare transport accessibility in different areas to make informed decisions about location choices.
- Road Trip Planning: Explore how far you can travel on a road trip within a specific timeframe, helping you plan routes and stops effectively.
Use Cases for Businesses: Strategic Location Analysis
Businesses can leverage travel time maps for advanced spatial analysis and strategic decision-making:
- Extensive Travel Time Analysis: Analyze travel times up to 4 hours and integrate with other datasets like population density in GIS environments for comprehensive insights.
- Site Selection Analysis: Identify optimal business locations by analyzing accessibility from thousands of potential points, crucial for retail, service industries, and logistics.
- Distance and Travel Time Matrices: Calculate travel times and distances between numerous origins and destinations, essential for logistics, delivery services, and network optimization.
- Network Analysis and Routing Optimization: Solve complex routing challenges and optimize service delivery using spatial analytics.
- Employee Commute Time Analysis: Visualize and analyze employee commute times for office relocation or distributed workforce management.
Demo Limitations and Full Access to TravelTime API
The web demo provides a glimpse into the capabilities of TravelTime API, but it has certain limitations:
- Limited Time Polygons: The demo creates up to 3 time polygons, visualizing reachable areas within 2 hours or less. The full API can generate much larger travel time areas. To explore extended capabilities, talk to our sales team.
- Point-to-Point Routing: The demo calculates travel times from an origin to points of interest using data from Foursquare. Full API access unlocks comprehensive A-to-B routing details and more extensive data integration options.
For complete analysis across all transport modes and travel time areas, you need full access to the TravelTime API. This unlocks the full potential of our service for detailed spatial analysis and integration into your own applications. Access the developer playground here to start exploring the API’s capabilities. For commercial applications or larger scale usage, please contact us to discuss your needs and how TravelTime can provide tailored solutions. Please specify whether your inquiry is for commercial or personal use.
