Walk Reach Radius
Approximate walkable areas with a distance ring — pair with walk-time tools for duration.
By Aryan Khan, Founder & Editor · Updated October 2026
For example, at a typical 3 mph pace, 15 minutes of walking is a 0.75-mile radius covering 1.77 square miles — the famous '15-minute neighbourhood', drawn as the circle it actually is.
How to use Walk Reach Radius
Time times pace equals reach — draw it:
The Walk Reach Radius draws the area reachable on foot around a point, using walking time and an honest pace — about 3 miles per hour for most adults. Choose 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes and read the circle — the first-pass walkability map streets later refine.
- 1Set home or office.
- 2Choose a walk distance.
- 3Inspect the circle.
What people use Walk Reach Radius for
1. The 15-minute neighbourhood test
Planners' slogan, made measurable: what falls inside a quarter-hour's walk of a home or station? The overlay tools count contents; this page draws the honest circle first.
2. Property and letting research
'Walkable' in a listing becomes a radius around the address — checkable in one drawing, before the viewing.
3. School and service planning
Walking catchments for schools and clinics start as reach circles; policy draws the final line, but the circle is the evidence base.
4. Tourism on foot
A hotel's 10-minute circle is the visitor's real city — sights inside it are today's plan; the rest is tomorrow's bus.
Worked examples
At 3 mph, 15 minutes reaches 0.75 mi; at a brisk 4 mph, a full mile — the circle's area grows by 78% (1.77 → 3.14 sq mi). State the pace next to any walkability claim; the claim is meaningless without it.
Streets rarely run straight at the destination: real walking reach is the circle eroded by the network, often 60–80% of it. The radius map is the ceiling; network tools draw the true shape — and honest pages say which they are showing.
Walking reach at 3 mph
The standard pace (20 minutes per mile) — computed circles.
| Walk time | Radius | Area inside |
|---|---|---|
| 5 min | 0.25 mi | 0.20 sq mi (126 acres) |
| 10 min | 0.50 mi | 0.79 sq mi (503 acres) |
| 15 min | 0.75 mi | 1.77 sq mi (1,131 acres) |
| 20 min | 1.00 mi | 3.14 sq mi (2,011 acres) |
| 30 min | 1.50 mi | 7.07 sq mi (4,524 acres) |
Pace varies — children, hills, heat and age all edit it. The table's 3 mph is the planning standard, adjustable in the tool; what matters is that the pace travels with the claim.
Walking reach is shaped by paths and crossings, not just distance
A walking radius gives a simple geometric view of what sits near a point, which is helpful for comparing hotels, stations, schools or neighbourhood amenities. It does not know whether there is a sidewalk, safe crossing, public entrance, steep hill or barrier between the origin and destination.
Use the circle to screen nearby places, then switch to walking-route or travel-time analysis for actual access. This page does not reproduce a commercial Walk Score rating; it visualizes distance-based pedestrian reach and should be interpreted accordingly.
How to interpret the result
The most common errors come from using a correct result to answer the wrong geographic question. Keep these points in mind for Walk Reach Radius:
- When exporting polygons for reports, store the radius and unit in the feature properties (the exports here do). Future-you, reopening the file in a GIS, will otherwise have to re-derive what the circle meant.
- Decide geometric vs temporal reach before drawing anything: a 10 km circle and a 15-minute drive area answer different questions, and in car-dependent geography they barely overlap in shape. Circles for policy radii, isochrones for response promises.
Limits & appropriate use
Circles and polygons are geometric truths with semantic limits. A radius says nothing about rivers, one-way systems or response times; an area says nothing about what is inside it. The most expensive misuse is treating a geometric catchment as a service promise — which is why the isochrone tools exist as the temporal counterpart, and why the pages cross-link the two insistently. A second limit is resolution: drawn vertices capture the boundary you click, so curved shores want more clicks, and the perimeter grows (correctly) as you add them — the coastline paradox, politely present in every honest measurement tool.
Within geometry, the numbers are exact on the sphere: areas by spherical excess, boundaries by destination math, exports with their parameters embedded. The escalation ladder is short: cadastral precision needs licensed surveys; population-inside-shapes needs census blocks; drive-time promises need the routing engine. Used as the fast, auditable, shareable geometric layer that feeds those heavier instruments, this is exactly the right tool — and it says so.
- Cadastral/legal area → licensed survey with local datum practice.
- Population inside shapes → census blocks, not city-point sums.
- Response-time promises → isochrones plus operational buffers.
Data & methodology
The workspace draws a straight-line circle. It does not calculate Walk Score, footway routing, or a walking-time isochrone.
For source details, licences and model limitations, see Data Sources and Methodology.
Key terms worth knowing
- Perimeter
- The summed great-circle length of a drawn boundary.
- Spherical cap
- The true shape of a radius circle on a globe.
Editorial guidance: MapBench explains the method and limitations so the tool can be used as a transparent reference, not as a black-box answer. For legal boundaries, safety-critical routing, surveying, engineering, regulated decisions or official statistics, verify the result with the responsible authority or a qualified professional.
Category: Radius & Area. Results are intended for everyday analysis and planning unless a page explicitly states otherwise.
Method, assumptions & limits
- This tool’s method
- The workspace draws a straight-line circle. It does not calculate Walk Score, footway routing, or a walking-time isochrone.
- Before relying on the answer
- Check the centre, radius or drawn vertices and the selected units. A geometric footprint does not describe which roads or entrances are accessible.
- What the result cannot establish
- A radius is not a travel-time guarantee. For parcel boundaries or legal land area, use an authoritative survey.
Coverage: Worldwide. Search, basemap and external data requests may use third-party services; browser-based does not mean every operation is offline. Read the source and licence notes, calculation methodology and privacy policy. If a result looks inconsistent, report a correction with the inputs and mode used.
Frequently asked questions
Clear answers about the calculation, accuracy and appropriate use.
Sidewalk network?
Ring is straight-line; real walks follow paths and crossings.
Is a radius the same as driving distance?
No. A radius is a geometric circle around a centre point. Driving reach depends on the road network and usually has an irregular shape.
Can I use this for service-area planning?
Yes for first-pass planning. Use a drive-time or road-network tool when accessibility matters more than straight-line coverage.
Are map measurements legal survey measurements?
No. MapBench measurements are planning/reference outputs unless a page explicitly states otherwise. Use a licensed surveyor for legal boundaries.
Does it follow sidewalks and paths?
No — this is the straight-line reach circle, the honest first pass. Network-based walk sheds are the refinement; the circle is the ceiling they can never exceed.
What pace for children or older walkers?
About 2–2.5 mph is the kinder planning pace — select it and the circle shrinks to the walker's real world, which is the respectful way to plan.
Hills?
Gradient eats pace (Naismith's rule adds time for ascent). Flat-circle reach in hill country overstates; treat the drawing as the best case there.
Is 15 minutes really a mile?
At 4 mph yes; at the standard 3 mph it is 0.75 miles. The slogan survives because brisk walkers exist — the tool lets the pace be chosen rather than assumed.
Cycling reach?
Multiply pace by roughly four (12 mph) and the same drawing serves — the tool's pace input covers it, labelled as cycling when used so.
Public transport stops inside?
Overlay question — the buffer tools count what's inside; this page draws how far the feet reach.
Night and safety?
Reach is geometry; comfort is another layer (lighting, crossings) no radius draws. Planners pair the circle with the street audit.
Kilometres for European planning?
The 15-minute city was coined in Paris — km circles are this tool's native second language.
Related tools and resources
What's inside: the Spatial Buffer & Overlay Analyzer; walk times: the Walking Time Calculator; buffers: the Buffer Zone Map.
More free tools
Sources, methodology & editorial trust
- ✓ Browser-first processing where supported
- ✓ External sources are documented
- ✓ No account required for public tools
- ✓ Review data sources
Calculations are documented with their assumptions, limitations and source context rather than presented as unexplained answers.
Reviewed and maintained by Aryan Khan, Founder & Editor of MapBench.
Part of our radius & service area hub
Walk Reach Radius sits in the radius & service area cluster, alongside 18 other tools that answer neighbouring questions with different methods or datasets.
You may also need
When this answer is only part of the job, these clusters cover the next step.
Read the guide behind this tool
How to Draw a Radius on Google Maps — Google Maps has no radius button. Here are the exact workarounds to draw a radius circle — plus free tools that do it in one click.