Thursday, May 21, 2020

The Scottish Isochrone Map



I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who teaches in a school which is re-opening for students in two weeks time. She is very keen for her students to be able to go back to school. However she really doesn't want to start travelling again on the London Underground twice a day during the morning and evening rush hour. And I really don't blame her.

My friend knows that I cycle a lot in London so she was eager to find out how long it would take her to bike to work everyday and which would be the quickest and safest routes. I was surprised that my friend had very little understanding of the distance she could cycle in 30 minutes. Which obviously got me thinking about isochrone maps.

The fact that I had also just been playing with the Scottish Travel Isochrones map might also be why I immediately thought about travel time maps. The Scottish Travel Isochrones interactive map allows you to view cycling, walking and public transport isochrone layers for workplace zones in Scotland. The map allows you to quickly see how far you can travel in different amounts of time using different modes of transport within Scottish towns and cities. The map is particularly useful if you want to compare the effectiveness of public transport systems in different cities.

Obviously a Scottish travel time map isn't much use to my friend in London. Luckily my encyclopedic knowledge of interactive maps allowed me to point her towards Parallel's Schools in England & Wales map instead. This interactive map provides, walking, cycling and driving times for every school in England and Wales. Zoom in on any school and you can view isochrone layers showing the areas that you can walk, bike or drive to (from the school) in six minute increments.

If you want to view other interactive isochrone maps then you can explore the isochrone label on Maps Mania, which includes many examples of travel time maps from around the world.

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