Drive Time Area from Multiple Points

[tdpeake]

I want to create a drive time area that gives me a polygon that shows places that can be reached within a given time.  I teach a high school engineering course and we do so sustainable urban planning.

Example:  I want to pick a place to locate a new neighborhood.  It needs to be within 20mins of the fire dept, police dept, local hospital, and grocery store.  How would I create a polygon showing the area the would satisfy the requirements.

I have done this already, but I think you folks will know a better way.  My steps are:

1. Create an individual drive time area for each location
2. Use the overlay analysis to start only showing the intersection of pairs of drive time areas until I only have one polygon left.

Any links to examples or lessons would be helpful

[DavidPike]

I would probably do exactly the same, seems a sound logic.

[AmandaRing]

My recommendation would be to do the following:

1. Create a drive time area for each input layer
2. Instead of using overlay tools, you can use the Derive New Locations tool to find the locations where all the polygons you created in step 1 intersect, all in just one tool run.
   So you would run something like:
   

   
   
   There's more customization available too - say for example, you wanted locations that were 20 mins from grocery stores and hospitals, and 20 mins from either a fire station or a police station, you could format the expressions in the tool to be something like this:

   
   You can find out more about the Derive New Locations tool here
   Some example lessons that might be relevant include Evaluate locations for mixed-use development  and this cougar habitat case study
   
   Hope this helps 😊