Abstract
Travel distance dataset.
Aim: A national suite of spatial accessibility matrices designed for non-specialist users in Aotearoa New Zealand was developed with the goal of providing flexible, high resolution, travel time and distance datasets that enable equitable, spatially informed health service planning.
Method: Using New Zealand address weighted centroids for Meshblock, SA1, SA2, and Domicile code geographies, shortest path drive times and distances were estimated to GP, pharmacy, hospital, and cancer treatment facilities; and for each SA2 code pairing. Seventeen national travel-time and distance matrices were produced. Validation against 17,000 Google Maps Distance Matrix API samples assessed correlation between estimated and reference travel times and distances.
Data: An industry standard road network was used for this analysis. The Precisely (2025) Street Pro Navigation Premium NZ Road Network topologically models the roads, junctions, and traffic directions of the physical road system. Each road segment is associated with a distance and speed impedance. Data on road speeds is derived through aggregate measurement of active vehicles by TomTom. Travel time is derived from the minimum speeds during either the morning or evening peak periods. The ‘origin’ points were key StatsNZ (2023) statistical geographies: Meshblock (MB) 2025, Statistical Area 1 (SA1) 2023, and Statistical Area 2 (SA2) 2023 shapefiles were downloaded from the StatsNZ (2025b) Geographic Data Service. Some deprecated statistical geographies are still used within the health sector and are the only geographic unit available within key national health datasets such as the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS, public and private hospital events). Health Domicile code (HDOM) was included by using the StatsNZ (2025a) Geographic Areas Table to link Area Unit 2006 and Area Unit 2013 boundaries. The address-weighted centroid of each statistical geography was used for analysis. Address-weighted centroids were developed using the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ, 2025) NZ Addresses dataset and each respective geographic unit.