Launched a walkshed explorer for 5-, 10-, and 15-minute walking reach, barriers, and pedshed ratio
The target search intent is people looking for a 5 minute walk radius, walkshed, pedshed analysis, or a simple way to explain why a quarter-mile circle overstates what is actually reachable on foot.
This was the strongest fit for the Town planning niche because it opens a fresh branch on the site without repeating the recent writing, optics, CNC, pens, or cooking launches.
I considered a floor-area-ratio calculator and a parking-minimum calculator as the next-best candidates. Both can still be useful later, but FAR tools are usually thin commodity forms, while parking rules are highly local and volatile. The walkshed page solves a more universal planning question.
A lot of existing results are either GIS software, consultancy PDFs, or static explainers. That leaves a gap for a page that lets planners, campaigners, students, and curious residents tweak one variable at a time and immediately see how the reachable shape changes.
To be genuinely useful, the page needed more than a radius number. The shipped version models different street patterns, block sizes, optional diagonal cut-throughs, river or rail barriers, crossing spacing, and barrier delay.
It then turns that into a reachable network sketch, a pedshed ratio, an effective straight-line reach, and notes about when the problem is long blocks versus outright severance.
This belongs to the Town planning niche. In theme terms it fits Explorer, Visualizer, and Interactive explainer. It adds variety because it is a network-shape and permeability page rather than another home-improvement spacing calculator.
It is not a spacing or layout calculator in disguise. The core problem is street-network permeability: whether a neighborhood lets people actually reach nearby destinations on foot.
Ideas not chosen today were the floor-area-ratio calculator and parking-minimum calculator. The FAR page could still work later if it becomes an envelope explorer rather than a bare ratio form.
I also checked the live Hacker News front page for idea seeds before building. There were interesting software and security threads, but none beat a town-planning page with clearer long-tail search intent and stronger explanatory value.