Online Tool Store
Neighborhood Commute Comparator
Compare several candidate neighborhoods side by side by their estimated distance and commute time to your workplace, across driving, transit, and biking modes.
🔒 This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to a server.
Estimates commute time from distance using typical average speeds per mode — not live traffic or transit routing.
| Neighborhood | Distance to work (mi) | Mode | Est. commute |
|---|
How the Neighborhood Commute Comparator works
- Add each candidate neighborhood with its distance to your workplace and your likely commute mode.
- The tool estimates commute time using typical effective speeds for driving, transit, and biking.
- Entries are compared side by side, with the shortest estimated commute highlighted and the time gap to the slowest option called out.
FAQ
Where does the distance number come from?
You enter it yourself — pull the straight-line or driving distance from your workplace to each candidate neighborhood using any map service, then plug it in here to compare commute time across options side by side.
How is estimated commute time calculated?
The tool multiplies distance by a typical effective average speed for each mode (28 mph driving, 16 mph transit, 11 mph biking) that accounts for stops, traffic, and waiting — not free-flow highway speed — to give a realistic ballpark, not an exact figure.
Why compare multiple transport modes?
The shortest-distance neighborhood isn't always the fastest commute — a closer neighborhood on a slow transit line might lose to a farther one with a direct highway drive. Comparing modes side by side surfaces that kind of tradeoff.
How we compare
| Feature | Online Tool Store | Live map routing per neighborhood | Guessing from a map |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side-by-side ranked comparison | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Live traffic-accurate routing | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
Once you've narrowed down favorites, check an actual routing app at your real commute time of day for a precise estimate before deciding.