Contents
Data specialists need Alteryx spatial analysis in order to make informed location-based decisions. These data insights can be used to optimise supply chains, logistics, retail portfolio management, marketing, sales territory planning and more.
The new TravelTime suite of macros takes spatial analysis to the next level, enriching Alteryx with directions, travel cost and journey time information and includes transport data for driving, cycling, walking and public transport. Access is available via an API, but there’s no coding, no complex setup or configuration required, just powerful drag-and-drop travel time analytics.
Each macro connects to a specific endpoint of the TravelTime API, and these cover:
- Geocoder & Reverse Geocoder - convert lat/long coordinates into addresses & vice versa
- Isochrones - create a shapefile displaying all locations reachable within a time limit
- Reachable Points Filter - identify which points of interest are within a travel time catchment area & get the journey times to each point
- Routes - A to B, turn-by-turn directions
- Travel Time Matrix - add travel times to a distance matrix
To start leveraging the power of travel time analytics, download the macros from the Alteryx Gallery.
You can get setup in minutes with a free API key for testing. Get a TravelTime API key here.
You can see the full Alteryx documentation here.
Functionality Overview
Each macro can be used as a standalone tool simply by dragging it onto the canvas, or multiple macros can be chained together to super-charge their capabilities and start solving complex geospatial business problems.
Whenever adding a new macro to a workflow, simply enter your API credentials, configure the parameters however you like, and hit run.
Geocoder
Latitude and longitude coordinates are used widely in geospatial data and determine the precise location of a place on earth. This data is required when pinning locations on a map or performing a location-based search.
The Geocoder macro can be used to:
- Convert addresses (e.g postcodes) into lat-long coordinates and display them as points on a map ('Standard')
- Convert lat-long coordinates into street addresses ('Reverse')
Results can be narrowed down to a specified country, or multiple matches can be returned if desirable.
This macro is essential for converting location data into coordinates that can then be used by any of the other TravelTime macros. For more details view go to the Alteryx Geocoder Macro Setup page.
Full documentation for the API endpoints can be found here:
Isochrones
Isochrones display all the reachable locations from a point of origin within a travel time limit. For example, it can be used to visualise all reachable areas within a 15 minutes drive from an airport during rush hour. Many people also refer to this shape as a ‘travel time radius’ or ‘travel time polygon’.
The Isochrones macro can be used to create travel time polygons showing areas that are reachable within a chosen travel time, by any method of transport.
This provides significantly more powerful functionality than the basic Alteryx 'Trade Area' tool by including multiple transport types (including public transport, walking, and cycling) and more granular multi-polygon shapes. There are also significantly more configurable parameters, such as the exact time of day, the maximum walking time permitted, and many more.
The potential use cases of this macro are wide-ranging, but include calculating retail store catchment areas, sales territories, and transport infrastructure planning. When combined with additional data sets such as population data, even more powerful analysis can be conducted. For more details view go to the Alteryx Isochrones Macro Setup page.
Full documentation for the API endpoint can be found here
Travel Time Matrix
When making a location-based decision you may wish to compare the journey times from many origins to many destinations in a single table. This helps you identify the longest and shortest outlier journeys as well as compare times across multiple locations. This is the TravelTime equivalent of a distance matrix.
The Travel Time Matrix macro can be used to create a matrix of travel times between multiple origins and multiple destinations, as well as a matrix of distances or fares where applicable.
The macro itself returns a table of all A to B routes, and a simple combination of a Filter tool and a Cross Tab tool can then be used to create a summary matrix.
This macro takes the traditional 'distance matrix' and enhances it with travel times and public transport fares, allowing large data sets of many-to-many routes to be efficiently calculated. For more details view go to the Alteryx Travel Time Matrix Macro Setup page.
Full documentation for the API endpoint can be found here
Reachable Points Filter
The Reachable Points Filter macro can be used to filter location data points into 'reachable' and 'unreachable' groups based on travel time, while also returning exact travel times and distances for all reachable results.
This macro can be used to easily segment data based on travel time – for example, which customers are within a 45 minute drive from a retail store, or which employees can get to the office in 1 hour or less by public transport. The results can easily be displayed on a map to provide a visualisation alongside the tabular data. For more details view go to the Alteryx Reachable Points Macro Setup page.
Full documentation for the API endpoint can be found here
Routes
The Routes macro can be used to generate A to B routes with turn-by-turn directions, as well as summarised data including travel time, distance, and fare cost (where applicable).
This macro is perfect for quickly calculating the best route between two locations, as well as displaying it visually on a map. The ability to produce turn-by-turn directions, by any method of transport, makes it immensely versatile. For more details view go to the Alteryx Routes Macro Setup page.
Full documentation for the API endpoint can be found here
Further Information
Pricing
A full commercial licence covering all of the macros is priced at £3,000 / user / year.
This gives unlimited usage of all of the macros, within a fair usage policy.
To enquire about moving onto a commercial licence, please contact us on sales@traveltime.com
Technical Details
Get full documentation for all of the macros here.