Why we love it
A quick look at this map reveals stunning patterns. Some cities forbid highways from even approaching their center, while others are surrounded by highways. The map reveals neighborhood-level detail as well as citywide and even regional patterns. We love the addition of live web cams to help tell the story of European cities and their relationship to highways.
Why it works
This map shows you right away the areas in Europe within 10 minutes of a highway exit. It makes it easy to understand which cities and even neighborhoods are most accessible by highway. The colors represent increments of 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10 minutes from a highway exit. The colors get brighter, much like car headlights, to show a city is closer to a highway.
Tips and tricks
Add brighter colors in service areas
Map Author
Jim Herries
Applied geographer, map curator for Living Atlas of the World and Urban Observatory. I work with talented people to make better maps by eliminating the noise and increasing the signal.