Coverage analysis
What 45 minutes covers in Seattle.
Seattle is hemmed in by Puget Sound to the west and Lake Washington to the east, with only two bridges (520 and I-90) connecting the city to the Eastside. Drive-time isochrones here are the most lake-and-water-distorted of any major US metro.
At 45 minutes, the Seattle isochrone captures the extended regional draw — a regional footprint where destination-category businesses draw from a wide geographic spread. Unlike a 200–600 km² circle, the real road-network polygon follows Seattle'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 45 minutes: Regional mall anchor, hospital, specialty medical, premium auto, luxury retail, cinema. The 45-minute isochrone is the standard input for regional territory design and logistics network planning.
The city-level population of 737,255 and a median household income of $102,486 give a sense of Seattle'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.