5/10/15/20-Minute Walksheds for Chicago 'L' Stations

I built this around a fairly specific house-hunting question: from a given address, which Chicago 'L' stations can I actually walk to in 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes?

Straight-line circles are easy, but the river, expressways, rail yards, missing crossings, and the ordinary weirdness of Chicago's street grid make them a poor substitute for a walking route. This version requests 580 inbound Google pedestrian-network isochrones -- 145 station points across four durations -- then dissolves them into four non-overlapping display bands. The original polygons stay in process memory so an address search can still identify each qualifying station and place it under its shortest matching time.

The geometry is high-fidelity and unsmoothed, which explains the jagged boundaries. Google also labels walking routes as beta, so a property near an edge still deserves a direct door-to-station check. Maps are useful; missing sidewalks remain stubbornly physical.

Interactive map #

Walking-data warning: Google states that walking routes are beta and may sometimes omit clear sidewalks or pedestrian paths. Verify any property close to a polygon edge directly in Google Maps before relying on it.

Station points come from the official CTA/City of Chicago GIS export, updated March 24, 2026. Google isochrone geometry stays in this server's process memory and is displayed on a Google Map.