Everything you need to know about reachability analysis and service area mapping.
What is an isochrone?
An isochrone is a polygon that encloses all points reachable from a given location within a specific travel time or distance. On a map, a 15-minute driving isochrone shows the full area you can reach in 15 minutes following actual roads. Unlike a simple radius circle, it accounts for road network topology, speed limits, and turn restrictions.
What is the Isochrone API used for?
Common use cases include visualizing service area coverage for a business or depot, running catchment analysis for retail site selection, showing commute zones on a property listing, filtering a dataset to find all points of interest within a given travel time, and comparing accessibility across different locations or transport modes.
What travel modes does the Isochrone API support?
The API supports driving, walking, cycling, and public transit. Each mode produces a very different polygon for the same time interval. A 15-minute driving isochrone typically covers 30 to 50 km², while a 15-minute walking isochrone covers roughly 1 to 2 km². Generate isochrones for multiple modes in separate requests to compare accessibility by transport type.
Can I request multiple time intervals in one call?
Yes. Pass an array of time thresholds, for example 5, 10, and 15 minutes, and the API returns a separate GeoJSON polygon for each threshold. Polygons for larger intervals fully contain the polygons for smaller ones, creating a nested ring visualization that shows gradual reachability bands around your origin point.
How is an isochrone different from a radius buffer?
A radius buffer ignores the road network and simply draws a circle of fixed radius. An isochrone follows actual roads, so it extends further along highways and less into areas with poor road access. For any real-world analysis involving travel time, an isochrone is significantly more accurate than a radius buffer.
What format does the Isochrone API return?
The API returns a GeoJSON FeatureCollection with one Feature per requested interval. Each Feature is a Polygon geometry with properties including the requested contour value (time in minutes or distance in metres) and the travel mode used. The GeoJSON can be rendered directly on any MapAtlas, Mapbox GL, or Leaflet map.
What is an isoline map?
An isoline map shows lines that connect points with the same value. In transportation an isoline can connect points that are the same number of minutes away from a centre by car, bike, or foot. In topography the same idea produces contour lines connecting points at the same elevation. The MapAtlas Isochrone API generates the transportation version: time and distance isolines you can render on any web map.
What is the difference between an isoline map and an isochrone map?
An isochrone map is one specific type of isoline map where the connecting value is travel time. Isoline maps in the general sense can connect any equal value: time, distance, elevation, temperature. When people say isochrone map they usually mean the travel-time version, which is what the MapAtlas Isochrone API produces.
How do I create an isochrone map?
Call the isochrone endpoint with a centre point, a travel mode (driving, walking, cycling), and one or more time or distance limits. The API returns GeoJSON polygons you can drop straight into Mapbox GL, MapLibre, Leaflet, or any web map library. Most teams build the catchment-area visualization in under an hour with the returned polygons.
What is the difference between an isochrone and an isoline?
An isoline connects points of equal value on a map. An isochrone is a type of isoline that connects points reachable within the same travel time from an origin. The Isochrone API returns drive-time, walk-time, and cycle-time isochrones (also called isoline maps) as GeoJSON polygons.
