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Release: Isochrone Map Features (July ‘23)

New map features now live in your dashboard

Update Overview

At StreetMetrics, we routinely release platform improvements. Please see the following new releases below:

  • Feature #1: Isochrone Layers

  • Feature #2: POI (Point of Interest) Radius

Feature #1: Isochrone layers

The benefit: Know how far people can travel in a given timeframe from a pin marker by adding an isochrone layer to your pin marker.

Overview: Within every physical location, the ability to traverse in all directions is not equal. While two endpoints may be situated merely five miles away from a starting point, the time taken to reach each endpoint can significantly differ. Various factors beyond distance play a crucial role, such as geography, traffic patterns, and the availability of specific transportation modes, like train lines or bike paths. Isochrone maps serve as a valuable tool in assessing these factors, enabling the identification of areas reachable within specific time constraints.

This new feature allows you highlight either distance from the marker (e.g. 50ft, 500ft, 1,000ft, 10,000ft) or the distance it would take to walk, drive, cycle some distance from the marker based on some defined time interval (5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 30 min, 60 min, 15 min increments).

Use cases: Overlay this layer with your route map to showcase how well your transit routes reach individuals within a specific travel range of your client’s store, location or POI (Point-of-Interest).

Additionally, the “search for location” bar at the top right corner makes this seamless to search for the location, add a pin and Isochrone.

Feature #2: POI Circle Radius

The benefit: Understand a specific distance from a central point by layering a circular radius around a marker location.

Use case: Overlay this layer to your route map to showcase how well your transit routes reach individuals within a specific circular proximity around your client’s store, location or POI.

Accessing the new features

Isochrone layers:

  • Within your dashboard, Go to Map Manager on the lefthand side menu of the homepage. Click “Saved Maps.”

  • Once you have your list of “Saved Maps,” select the map you would like to add pins and Isochrone to. Open the map using the eye icon.

  • Double click into the map to create a new pin. (Optional: search for your location in the top left corner on the map)

  • After double-clicking to create the pin, click the pin on to launch this popup:

Complete the following steps:

  1. Choose the Travel Mode (what travelers are you trying to visualize reach for): Walking, Cycling or Driving

  2. Choose the Contour Type (do you want to visualize the distance or time the travelers were around the location): Minutes or Feet

  3. Select Contour (either the distance (in feet) or time (in minutes) of travelers):

  4. Select denoise level (optional) — represented on a scale from 0-1 (1 being the highest level of denoise)

    1. * During the process of creating isochrone maps, there may be instances where the lines or polygons representing travel time boundaries may appear jagged, fragmented, or contain small outliers. This could be due to variations in data or inaccuracies in the underlying transportation network. To improve the visual quality and accuracy of the isochrone map, denoising techniques are employed. Denoising can involve smoothing out the boundaries of the isochrone areas to create more visually appealing and continuous contours. (this mainly applies for significantly large isochrone coverage areas.)

  5. Select generalize (optional) — represented in meters, max 100 meters

    1. On an isochrone map, "generalize" refers to the process of simplifying or reducing the complexity of the isochrone lines or polygons while still retaining the essential characteristics of the travel time zones. The goal of generalization is to create a more streamlined representation of the isochrone areas, making the map easier to read and understand without sacrificing crucial information.

POI Radius:

Repeat steps 1- 4 (listed above for isochrone):

  • Customize your marker as you wish (color, display name), then select “Circle” button. You should now see this popup.

Once these fields are completed, you can view the circle radius on your map.

Wrap Up

We hope you find these map manager updates useful. Check out these new features for yourself by heading to the 'saved maps' section of your map manager.

If you have any questions at all, please reach out to your StreetMetrics rep!

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