Where

Travel area

Travel area draws the area that can really be reached from a place: within a travel time (15 minutes by car) or a distance by road (10 km), on foot, by bike or by car, following the roads. Put it after your own stores or sites, or pick places on the map; the blocks after it, such as Nearby places, Demographics or Traffic incidents, search inside those areas as they would an Area of interest. Up to 15 minutes and 10 km by road for now.

In the editor: The area you can reach within a travel time (15 minutes by car) or a distance by road (10 km), on foot, by bike or by car, from each incoming place or from places you pick. The blocks after it search inside it, like the Area of interest: the competitors within 10 minutes’ drive of each store, who lives within a 15-minute walk.

Settings

Within

Pick one

A travel time in minutes, or a distance in kilometres measured along the roads (not as the crow flies).

  • A travel time Everything within so many minutes.
  • A distance by road Everything within so many kilometres along the roads.

Minutes

Pick one

Up to 15 minutes for now. Longer times come with a bigger plan at xMap’s routing provider (Geoapify).

  • 5
  • 10
  • 15

Kilometres by road

Pick one

Following the roads, not a straight line. Up to 10 km for now; longer distances come with a bigger plan at xMap’s routing provider (Geoapify).

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 5
  • 10

By

Pick one

Car, Walking or Cycling. A 15-minute walk reaches about a kilometre in a town; a 15-minute drive several.

  • Car
  • Walking
  • Cycling

Around

Pick one

Automatic takes the places that reach the block when they have a position, and the places you pick when nothing comes in.

The places that reach this block, when they have a position (up to 25).

  • Automatic The incoming places, else the places you pick.
  • Each incoming place Every place that reaches it (up to 25 a run), for example your stores from My data.
  • Places I pick The places typed below, whatever comes in.

Places

A setting

Search for a place, a street or an address and pick it from the list, so it has a position. Several places make several areas.

Only used when the places coming in have no position. Leave it empty to use only the places coming in.

What comes out

Each item that leaves the block carries these fields, to use in the blocks after it as {{field}}.

An area for the blocks after it

Travel area passes on no items of its own: it hands the next blocks an area to search, like the Area of interest. Set their Where to Automatic or Area of interest.

  • area: On each place a later block finds inside it: the name of its area, the travel range and the place it was drawn around.
  • the step: Says how many areas were drawn on the roads, and which (if any) are estimates and why.

When an area is an estimate

The routing service could not draw it: it is not set up, today’s share of it is used, or the call failed.

  • the area: A circle at a typical straight-line speed (car 25 km/h, cycling 12 km/h, walking 4 km/h), or a road distance cut by how much roads wind. Free.
  • the step and emails: Both say the area is an estimate, not real travel times or road distances.

How to use it

Retail

Competitors within 10 minutes’ drive of each store

A sportswear retailer in London wants every rival store its customers could reach instead, not every one in the city.

Each competitor found carries the name of the store area it is in, so every manager reads their own part.

Healthcare

Who lives within a 15-minute walk of a new site

A clinic group in Toronto weighs three sites and wants to know how many people live within an easy walk of each.

Demographics counts the residents inside each walking area instead of a plain circle.

Real estate

What is within 10 km by road of a warehouse

Before: Brokers drew a circle on a map and guessed which roads mattered.

With the flow: The brochure lists the customers a tenant can reach within 10 km by road.

Logistics

Road closures in each depot’s delivery area

A courier in Paris wants to know each morning which closures fall inside the area each depot covers in 15 minutes.

Traffic incidents set to Area of interest searches only the travel areas, so drivers hear only about closures on their own patch.

FMCG distribution

New shops a van can reach in 15 minutes

With Around set to Places I pick, the depot is typed once in the block.

Hospitality

Restaurants within a short walk of each hotel

A hotel group in Tokyo lists the restaurants guests can walk to in 10 minutes, for each hotel’s concierge page.

Banking and payments

Merchants within a cycle ride of each branch

Cycling areas fit city centres where a branch’s field officers ride between shops.

Government and cities

Pharmacies within a 10-minute walk of each district centre

A city in Mexico wants to see which district centres have no pharmacy within an easy walk.

Before: Planners counted pharmacies inside district boundaries that ignored how people walk.

With the flow: Each centre shows the pharmacies people can really walk to.

Good to know

  • Up to 15 minutes and 10 km by road for now. Longer times and distances come with a bigger plan at xMap’s routing provider (Geoapify).
  • Up to 25 areas a run, one per place or point.
  • An area drawn once for a place, a range and a way of travelling is kept for 30 days, so running it again costs nothing.
  • When the routing service is not set up, today’s share of it is used, or a call fails, the area is an estimate: a circle at a typical speed. It is free, and the step and every email say it is an estimate, not real travel times.
  • Travel times are for usual traffic, not the traffic at the moment of the run.
  • It passes on an area, not items: the blocks after it should look in the Area of interest (or Automatic).
  • Credits are counted per area, for each 5 minutes or 5 km it reaches; estimates and kept areas are free.

Works well with

  • Nearby places: Places around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.
  • Demographics: Who lives in an area: the number of residents, men and women, and nine age groups, from xMap’s population grid (hexagons of about 0.1 km², about 100 countries).
  • Traffic incidents: Road closures, roadworks and other incidents on online maps right now, with where they are.
  • My data: Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.
  • Area of interest: Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
  • Map business scan: Finds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.
  • Show on a map: Shows the results as points on a map, with the area of interest.
  • Only new: Lets through only the items this flow has not found before, so a daily flow sends only what is new.

Templates that use it

Stories with it

Help articles

Guides and terms

  • Drive time vs radius: Two ways to draw the area around a site, and when each is good enough.
  • Route planning: Putting a day's visits into a good order, for one rep or several.

Industries that use it

Retail & franchise · Construction & facilities · Ports & shipping · E-commerce & D2C · Public transport

Try it

Build a flow with Travel area on the home page, no account needed, or book a call. Try it live