Coverage analysis
What 15 minutes covers in Chicago.
Chicago's grid is the most consistent in any major US city, which makes baseline isochrones unusually clean — until you account for Lake Michigan erasing the eastern half and the expressway network (Kennedy, Eisenhower, Dan Ryan, Edens) creating sharp asymmetries between in-loop and outbound reach.
At 15 minutes, the Chicago isochrone captures the standard trade area — a zone where trips are planned but customers are willing to cross neighborhood boundaries. Unlike a 30–80 km² in typical US metros; the range varies 3× depending on road density and barriers circle, the real road-network polygon follows Chicago's actual highway corridors, accounts for bridge and interchange chokepoints, and respects the natural and built barriers that force drivers to detour.
Best-fit categories at 15 minutes: Casual dining, specialty retail, auto service, full-service salon, pet supply. The 15-minute isochrone is the standard input for franchise disclosure documents and protected-territory negotiations.
The city-level population of 2,696,555 and a median household income of $63,470 give a sense of Chicago's economic density, but the figure that matters for site selection is the population inside the polygon — not the city as a whole. That number shifts dramatically depending on whether you're drawing from a high-density urban core or a lower-density suburban corridor. Use the tool above to set your actual candidate location, then generate the isochrone to see the real catchment.