The Buffer/Drive Times analysis capability creates areas around input point, line, or area features to a specified distance, or uses Esri Service Areas to calculate the area that can be reached within a specified travel time or travel distance of point features along a street network based on travel mode.
Note:
The Service Area (Asynchronous) service and Routing Utilities service must be configured to create drive time areas using travel modes in Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise.
The Network Analysis privilege is required to create drive time areas using travel modes in Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights in ArcGIS Online. The Network Analysis privilege is included in the Publisher and Administrator default roles.
You must be signed in to an ArcGIS organization to create drive times using a travel mode in Insights desktop. The ArcGIS organization will be used to access the necessary services.
Examples
A local reporter is working on a story about response times to fires in her city. She wants to determine how much of the city is within a four-minute drive time of the city's fire stations. Buffer/Drive Times can be used to determine how far a fire truck can drive within the city in four minutes.
A development company is looking to make some money by creating a mixed-use development in an urban center. The development will have to be conveniently located within a quarter mile of shops, restaurants, or a light rail stop. Buffer/Drive Times can be used to determine which locations are appropriate for the new development.
Use the Buffer/Drive Times capability
Buffer/Drive Times can be run on maps with point, line, or area layers.
Complete the following steps to run the Buffer/Drive Times analysis capability:
- If necessary, click the map card to activate it. A card is active when the toolbar and Action button
appear. - Click the Action button, then choose Buffer/Drive Times.
- For Choose which layer to buffer, select the layer for which you want to create buffers or drive times.
- For Set distance and units, select the distance option (a fixed distance or travel mode, depending on your data type), distance, and units. See Usage notes for more information.
- For Choose buffer style, select Overlap or Dissolve.
- If you are creating a fixed-distance buffer, check Preview buffer, then adjust the buffer distance if necessary.
- Click Run.
Usage notes
An input point, line, or area layer can be chosen from the Choose which layer to buffer drop-down menu. The drop-down menu includes all layers that have been added to the map card.
The Set distance and units parameter is used to determine the type and size of the buffer or drive time. The distance units will be based on the default units for your account. If your input features are lines or areas, only the Fixed Distance option will be available. If your input features are points, the following options may be available:
| Buffer type | Description |
|---|---|
Fixed Distance | Uses a straight-line distance to create a buffer around points, lines, or areas. |
Walking Time | Follows paths and roads that allow pedestrian traffic and finds solutions that optimize travel time. The default walking speed is set to 5 kilometers per hour. |
Rural Driving Distance | Models the movement of cars and other similar small automobiles, such as pickup trucks, and finds solutions that optimize travel distance. Travel obeys one-way roads, avoids illegal turns, and follows other rules that are specific to cars but does not discourage travel on unpaved roads. |
Driving Time | Models the movement of cars and other similar small automobiles, such as pickup trucks, and finds solutions that optimize travel time. Travel obeys one-way roads, avoids illegal turns, and follows other rules that are specific to cars. |
Driving Distance | Models the movement of cars and other similar small automobiles, such as pickup trucks, and finds solutions that optimize travel distance. Travel obeys one-way roads, avoids illegal turns, and follows other rules that are specific to cars. |
Walking Distance | Follows paths and roads that allow pedestrian traffic and finds solutions that optimize travel distance. |
Rural Driving Time | Models the movement of cars and other similar small automobiles, such as pickup trucks, and finds solutions that optimize travel time. Travel obeys one-way roads, avoids illegal turns, and follows other rules that are specific to cars but does not discourage travel on unpaved roads. |
Trucking Time | Models basic truck travel by preferring designated truck routes and finds solutions that optimize travel time. Routes must obey one-way roads, avoid illegal turns, and so on. |
Trucking Distance | Models basic truck travel by preferring designated truck routes and finds solutions that optimize travel distance. Routes must obey one-way roads, avoid illegal turns, and so on. |
If you choose a buffer or travel mode based on distance, you can choose meters, kilometers, feet, or miles as your unit.
If you choose a travel mode based on time, you can choose seconds, minutes, or hours as your unit.
Choose a buffer style is used to determine the way intersecting buffers are displayed. The two options are Overlap (default) and Dissolve.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Creates circular buffers with distinct boundaries that can overlap each other. This option is the default. |
| Creates buffers that may appear irregular in shape. Adjacent buffer boundaries dissolve rather than overlap, combining into irregular-looking areas. |
You can use the Preview buffer check box for all features when a Fixed Distance buffer is being created. The preview can be used to adjust the size of the buffer by dragging an edge of the square around the buffer to increase or decrease the buffer diameter.
Insights in ArcGIS Online users, or Insights desktop users who are signed in to an Insights in ArcGIS Online organization, will be charged credits from their ArcGIS Online account when a drive time area is created using travel modes. Credits will also be charged when a buffer is created using the Dissolve option.
Note:
Buffer calculations on database datasets are performed using the native distance calculations available within the database. Therefore, distance calculations will vary based on database type and spatial type. Database datasets are available in Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights desktop.
Limitations
Travel modes can only be used when the input dataset contains point features.
Buffer/Drive Times is not supported for read-only connections to Snowflake and database platforms that are not supported out-of-the-box.