Oct 9, 2025
Learn how to export travel-time polygons from Population Explorer to analyze accessibility and trade areas in external tools.
Overview
Accessibility often matters more than straight-line distance when evaluating retail locations. A drive-time buffer — also known as an isochrone — captures the area reachable within a set travel time, providing a realistic view of how far customers can travel to reach a site.
In Population Explorer, drive-time buffers are generated using the Mapbox Isochrone API, which models real road networks and traffic conditions. These polygons can represent five, ten, or thirty-minute travel areas, giving analysts a clear picture of potential trade areas. Because drive times reflect real-world mobility patterns, they are more accurate for retail analysis than simple circular buffers.
Exporting these buffers allows you to bring Population Explorer’s data into external tools like Excel, GIS platforms, or visualization dashboards. This step ensures consistency between spatial models and business reports, enabling decision-makers to compare drive-time coverage and population reach side by side.
Drive-time exports are especially useful for franchise planners, delivery operations, and field teams who need reproducible, shareable geographies. Whether you're presenting a site plan to executives or preparing data for integration with CRM systems, PopEx exports provide precise, ready-to-use shapes.
Steps
1. Generate an Isochrone
Click New → Create Item → Isochrone, then select a map point and travel mode such as Driving, Walking, or Cycling.
2. Configure the Travel Time
Choose your desired duration (up to 60 minutes) and color, then click Add to create the drive-time buffer.
3. Export the Buffer
Select your folder, click Export → KML or Export → Excel to save the results. Use these outputs for additional analysis or to combine with other datasets.
Verification
Ensure that exported KML or Excel files include the expected travel-time geometry and associated population metrics. Verify that drive-time polygons align with site locations on the map.
