Catchment areas by real travel time

Split the map between your stores, schools, depots or clinics by how fast each one reaches every street, by car, bike or on foot. No overlapping circles and no straight-line guesses.

Map Your Catchment Areas Book a Demo

Catchment areas for several sites drawn by network Voronoi, each area following the road network and sharing exact borders with its neighbours.

Why network Voronoi is the best way to map catchment areas

It follows the real roads

Each place goes to the site that can reach it first on the road network. Rivers, highways and one-way streets are taken into account, so a store across the river no longer claims your block.

One site for every street

Areas never overlap and neighbours share one exact border. A road both sites reach at the same moment is split where they meet.

Numbers you can use

Every area keeps its site name, time limit, size in square kilometres and the kilometres of road it covers. Filter, chart or export them with the rest of your data.

Built for catchment questions

Seven store trade areas across Dallas and Fort Worth for 15 minutes of driving, each one following the roads to the store that reaches it first

Retail trade areas

See which customers each store reaches first by car, then add demographics to compare the people inside every trade area.

School zones for a 20 minute walk in north Seattle, where the Ship Canal and its few bridges split the neighborhoods

School catchment zones

Draw walking or driving catchments for every school from the real street network, then share the map with families.

Hospital coverage in Columbus for 8 minutes of driving, with gaps between the areas where no hospital arrives in time

Emergency and health coverage

Find which station, clinic or hospital reaches each street first, and spot the places no site reaches within your time limit.

Four depot territories across the Phoenix area, each covering the streets its trucks reach first within 20 minutes

Delivery and depot territories

Give each depot the streets it reaches fastest, so drivers do not cross each other's routes.

Features that matter

Network Voronoi by driving, cycling or walking time
Up to 100 sites and up to 60 minutes of travel
Areas named after each site, with area and road length
No overlaps: neighbours share one exact border
Places no site reaches in time are left out, so gaps are visible
Straight-line Voronoi on every plan, with an optional radius limit
Random colors per area, or your own fill and border
Add demographics, traffic counts and parcels to any area
Export areas to KML, GeoJSON, Shapefile and more than 30 formats
Ask Scribble AI to set it up in plain English

Scribble AI

Build maps with plain English

Tell Scribble AI what you need. Try “draw a 500m buffer around every site,” “import this CSV and color by status,” or “measure the route from the depot to each stop.” It does it in seconds. No GIS training needed, and your team gets the same map, ready to share.

Try Scribble AI →

Four ways to draw catchment areas

How the common methods behave when you map which site serves each place.

	Network Voronoi (travel time)	Straight-line Voronoi	Radius circles	Drive-time rings
Follows the road network	Yes	No	No	Yes
Each place belongs to exactly one site	Yes	Yes	No Circles overlap	No Rings from nearby sites overlap
Neighbouring areas share one border	Yes	Yes	No	No
Accounts for rivers, highways and one-way streets	Yes	No	No	Yes
Leaves out places no site reaches in time	Yes	No	No	Yes

In Scribble Maps, network Voronoi works with up to 100 sites and up to 60 minutes of travel, by car, bike or on foot, on Pro Business. Straight-line Voronoi works on every plan.

Two maps of Philadelphia and Camden with the same six sites. Left: straight-line Voronoi areas split by straight lines, with Camden's area crossing the Delaware River. Right: network Voronoi areas for 15 minutes of driving that follow the roads, stop at the river except across the bridges, and leave out places no site reaches in time. — The same six sites, two methods. Left: straight-line Voronoi, where Camden's area crosses the river. Right: network Voronoi by 15 minutes of driving, where the river and its bridges shape every area.

Frequently asked questions

What is a catchment area?

A catchment area is the part of the map a site serves: the customers a store draws from, the homes a school serves or the streets a fire station covers. Each place belongs to the site that is closest to it.

What is network Voronoi?

A Voronoi diagram splits a map between sites so every place goes to its closest site. Network Voronoi measures closest by travel time on the real road network instead of a straight line, so the areas follow roads, bridges and one-way streets.

Why is network Voronoi better than a radius or drive-time rings?

Radius circles and drive-time rings overlap, so a street can belong to several sites at once. Network Voronoi gives every street to exactly one site, the one that reaches it first, and neighbouring areas share one clean border. How to create service areas

How many locations can I use?

Up to 100 sites in one run, with a travel time limit of up to 60 minutes by car, bike or on foot.

Which plan do I need?

Travel time catchment areas need Pro Business. Straight-line Voronoi areas work on every plan.

Can Scribble AI make catchment areas for me?

Yes. Ask something like "split this map into 15 minute drive time areas for my stores" and Scribble AI opens the Service Areas tool and tells you what to pick.

Map your catchment areas

Map Your Catchment Areas