Mapumental

Mapumental FAQ

What is this service?
This service creates map images that show travel times by public transport from or to a postcode chosen by the user. Travel times are represented in five different colour bands. You can choose the target departure or arrival time to base the analysis on.

Standard maps are usually made within one working day.

If you have additional requirements – such as different colours, additional information, more or fewer time bands – we can make custom maps for you. We can also set up a high-volume map service for your organisation.

Why should I use it?
Whether you are an individual or a commercial or public organisation that cares about commuting times, our maps are a unique way to find new locations or assess your existing ones.

Our maps will save you a lot of time when working out your options or analysing accessibility of places by public transport.

Who is this for?
Anyone who is interested in travel times by public transport.

If you’re looking for a house or a job, you can find out which areas offer an acceptable commute to work.

If you are developing a new residential or commercial property, you can easily see the public transport “footfall”.

If you are planning a new service, the maps will show you how accessible it will be to people using public transport.

Organisations such as universities, employers, hotels and B&Bs and property experts can put these maps on their sites to help users assess commuting times.

When shouldn’t I use it?
When you are looking for a specific transport route or exact travel times between two points, you are better off with time-tables and route finders such as TrainTimes.org.uk.

Mapumental travel time maps help you find suitable locations rather than plan specific trips.

What can I get through this service?
You will get map images, reflecting travel times based on your selected postcode, your choice of direction (to or from the postcode) and maximum travel times.

The images are 1200 × 1200 pixels in size.

Can I print the maps?
Yes. The image size is 1200 × 1200 pixels. Print quality will depend on the printed image size and your printer’s settings.
What is the image size?
1200 × 1200 pixels. For comparison, a common laptop screen resolution is 1280 × 800, so this image has both width and height roughly the same as the width of a laptop screen.

The printed image size will depend on the DPI resolution of your printer.

What options can I choose?
Our standard maps come with several choices:
Direction of travel:
whether you’d like travel times to, or from, your chosen postcode
Target time:
this is either the departure time, or arrival time - depending on the direction of travel selected
Maximum travel time:
this is the total travel time you’d like to see mapped. You can choose a maximum travel time ranging from 30 to 180 minutes. The total travel time will be split into five bands, shown in different colours. For example, if you choose 30 minutes, the map will show travel times in 6 minute bands. If you choose 75 minutes, the bands will be 15 minutes each.
Title of your map:
this will appear in top left corner. If you leave this empty, the standard title will be used (such as “Public transport travel times to reach SW1 1AA by 9am”).

If you need additional or different options, please tells us and we’ll give you a quote.

How much do these maps cost?
Up to ten standard maps cost £25 each, inclusive of VAT.

If you buy ten or more, the cost is £15 each, inclusive of VAT.

We offer large discounts for high-volume orders (over 100).

We can also create customised maps, with non-standard colours, different time parameters, additional information and/or your branding. Prices are quoted on case-by-case basis based on your requirements. Please get in touch.

Can I put these maps on my site?
Yes, please feel free to!
How do I order a map?
You can specify how many maps you’d like on this page, and click “Buy”. You are then asked to create an account (to keep track of your purchases and submit map requests) and pay for your maps.

Once you’ve paid, you’ll be taken to your map request page. On that page, you will be able to specify the postcode and other settings, and request your map(s) to be made.

Your map will be emailed to the email address provided at the time of registration, so make sure to get that right! We will usually send your map within one working day, but it may take up to three working days when we are busy with large a number of orders.

If you ordered more than one map, you can request maps at any time in the next six months by logging in with the username and password you created when registering.

Once logged in, you will be able to see many maps you’ve requested and how many you have left to make.

How long does it take to make a map?
We will usually send your map within one working day. It may in some cases take up to three working days when we are busy with a large number of orders.

If you haven’t received your map within two working days of submitting a request, please check in your Spam folder. Some mail clients automatically filter unknown senders, so it may have ended up there.

If you still haven’t got it, please let us know.

How do I get in touch?
Take a look at our contact page.
What can I do with the maps?
Pretty much anything.

The maps are licenced under the CC By-SA 3.0 licence. This means you are free to share (including publication on your website or in your printed materials), remix or make commercial use of the images as long as you stick to the licence requirements for attribution and sharing.

For attribution, we ask you not to remove the attribution text referring to Mapumental and Open Street Map from the images.

If for whatever reason you’d like an exception, please write to us.

Where does the journey time data come from?
The data comes from the National Public Transport Data Repository. It contains a snapshot of every public transport journey in Great Britain for a selected week in October each year. Mapumental uses the latest available data, which is currently for October 2010.

The dataset is compiled with information from many sources, including local public transport information from each of the Traveline regions, coach services from the national coach services database and rail information from the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC).

How are the travel times calculated?
The travel times are calculated by plugging the journey times from NPTDR and some assumptions about things like walking speed into a variant of Dijkstra’s Algorithm.
Just how reliable is this data?
The journey times from NPTDR are based on a snapshot of real journey times from a particular week in October of each year. They give a good indication of roughly how long it takes to get from one place to another by public transport, but should certainly not be used for planning a particular journey. Please don’t move house based on one of these maps without checking the actual timetables.

Walking pace and maximum walking distance will also vary from person to person.

Can I have a customised map, with different colours, different time parameters or additional information?
Yes. Please tell us what you’d like the map to look like, and how many maps you’ll need – we’ll get back with a quote.
Can you make maps in other formats?
We can make custom maps in other formats on case by case basis - please tell us about your requirements, and we’ll be in touch.
I would like to order more than a hundred maps. Is this possible?
We offer significant discounts for high-volume map services. Please tell us what you’re looking for, and we’ll get right back to you.
I’d like an automated map service for my website
We can create an application that will fetch maps and embed them in your website when your data is updated. For example, if you provide a portal with jobs, hotels, or property data, we can automatically create new maps when new listings are added to your site. Please write to us for a quote.
Can I resell your maps?
We welcome resellers and offer great commission rates. Please get in touch.
Something went wrong with my order. What should I do?
Please contact us to tell us about the problem. We’ll do our best to fix it as soon as possible!
Are my card details secure?
We use PayPal’s secure payment services. Mapumental Ltd does not process the payment and does not store your card details.
Who made this service?
The service was made by developers from mySociety, the owner of Mapumental Ltd.

mySociety builds websites which give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives, such as TheyWorkForYou, PledgeBank, FixMyStreet and FixMyTransport.

Mapumental was built with support from Channel 4’s digital fund.

Income from Mapumental products will go back to funding mySociety’s charitable projects.