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graphways

Fast isochrones, routing, and POI lookups from OpenStreetMap -- written in Rust, callable from Python.

PyPI Crates.io License: MIT

What it does

graphways queries OpenStreetMap, builds a road-network graph, and gives you:

  • Isochrones -- polygons bounding everything reachable within a time limit
  • Point-to-point routing -- A* routes with per-waypoint cumulative travel times
  • POI fetching -- amenities, shops, and other features within any isochrone
  • Graph introspection -- inspect nodes, edges, and the network structure directly

Routes, isochrones, snap diagnostics, and POIs return structured Python objects. Call .to_geojson() when you need serialized GeoJSON for maps or files.

30-second start

import graphways as gw

# Build the graph once; reuse this object for repeated local queries.
graph = gw.SpatialGraph.from_place(
    "Marienplatz, Munich, Germany",
    network="drive",
    max_dist=10_000,
)

isos = graph.isochrone((48.137144, 11.575399), minutes=[5, 10, 15, 20])

route = graph.route((48.137144, 11.575399), (48.154560, 11.530840))
print(route.distance_m, route.duration_s)

pois = graph.fetch_pois(isos[0])
print(pois.count)

Features at a glance

Feature Detail
Graph construction Parses OSM XML or local OSM PBF into a reusable SpatialGraph
Simplification Collapses linear chains, deduplicates parallel edges, and preserves edge geometry
Spatial index R-tree for O(log n) nearest-node lookups
Isochrones Bounded graph search plus triangulated travel-time contours
Routing A* with an admissible straight-line heuristic
Network types Drive, DriveService, Walk, Bike, All, AllPrivate
Caching Overpass XML cache: disk XML -> in-memory XML
Python bindings Structured result objects with explicit GeoJSON export

Performance

Graphways is designed for repeated local queries over a reusable SpatialGraph. The benchmark suite reports graph construction separately from steady-state route, reachability, and isochrone queries:

python benchmarks/comparison.py
python benchmarks/engines/engines.py --pbf C:\path\to\extract.osm.pbf

Treat benchmark numbers as workload-specific. They depend on graph size, network profile, machine, cache state, and whether comparisons include server-based routing engines such as OSRM or Valhalla.