Europe Divided by Driving Time

What if every European capital sent out a car at exactly the same moment, with the aim of reaching every town and village in Europe before its rivals? Which capital would claim the most territory, and how far would its influence extend beyond its own national borders?

If Every European Capital Sent Out a Car at the Same Moment is an intriguing interactive map from Copilot Travel that attempts to answer these questions. It imagines 38 cars setting off simultaneously from 38 European capitals, with each car travelling outwards along the road network at typical driving speeds. Every location in Europe is then assigned to whichever capital's car can reach it first.

The resulting map divides Europe into 38 differently coloured territories, each representing the area that can be reached more quickly from one capital than from any of the others. The visualization is rather like a Voronoi diagram, in which a territory is divided according to the distance from a collection of starting points. However, instead of using straight-line distances to determine where one territory ends and another begins, this map uses travel time. In other words, it creates a kind of time-based Voronoi diagram using road-network isochrones.

You can watch the territories emerge in the animation. As the hours pass, coloured isochrones creep outwards from each capital, following the road network and expanding into neighbouring countries. Eventually, the different territories meet and the whole of Europe is covered by a patchwork of competing capital cities.

You can play or pause the race, drag the timeline to explore how the territories develop hour by hour, or select an individual capital to see the extent of its territory. You can also hover anywhere on the map to discover which capital would reach that location first, along with the arrival times of the next closest competitors. Alternatively, enter the name of a town to discover which capital wins the race there.

If you prefer to travel Europe by Train you can explore train travel times from every European capital (or anywhere else in Europe) using the excellent Chronotrains interactive map.

Via: WeeklyOSM