Attributions
Every map here is built from other people’s open data and open-source software. This page lists each source, what it’s used for, and the terms it’s used under.
In short
- The maps are drawn from public data published by governments, transit agencies and open projects such as OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia. No map tiles are borrowed from other sites.
- Each data source is used under its own licence or terms of use, linked below. Where a licence asks for credit, the credit is also shown on the map itself.
- The data is reshaped for the maps (simplified, merged, summarised). Any mistakes in that are mine, not the publishers’, and no publisher endorses these maps.
- The City Layers iOS app reads the same published files and credits the same sources.
Toronto Layers
City of Toronto
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City of Toronto Open Data
Neighbourhoods, wards, former municipalities, land and water, street centrelines and expressways, Business Improvement Areas, Heritage Conservation Districts, the Heritage Register (individually designated heritage properties), development applications, building permits and address points (for “What’s changing”), Parks and Recreation facilities, Toronto Public Library branches, Neighbourhood Profiles (2021 Census), road restrictions for transit construction, and the TTC’s schedules (GTFS).
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Toronto -
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population
Housing, commuting, home types, year built, language, ages and recent immigration, through the City’s Neighbourhood Profiles.
Statistics Canada Open Licence -
City of Toronto, City Clerk’s Office
The 2026 school board ward reference chart (which City wards make up each trustee ward), and the 2026 election candidates and unofficial results.
Public election information, toronto.ca
Transit
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Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
Streetcar and bus routes, stops and frequencies, subway and LRT lines, and transit times to Union Station. Published through City of Toronto Open Data.
Open Government Licence – Toronto -
Metrolinx (GO Transit and UP Express)
GO train lines and stations, GO bus routes and stops, and GO and UP Express trips in the transit-time lens.
Open Government Licence – Ontario – Metrolinx
Representatives and ridings
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Elections Canada, via Open North’s Represent
Federal electoral district boundaries (2023 Representation Order).
Open Government Licence – Canada -
Elections Ontario, via Open North’s Represent
Provincial riding names only. The riding shapes on the map are built from the City’s wards, which share the same lines.
Elections Ontario data licence -
House of Commons, Legislative Assembly of Ontario and City of Toronto
Names of the current MP, MPP and city councillor for each riding and ward, from each body’s public member list.
Public information: ourcommons.ca, ola.org, toronto.ca
Chicago Layers
City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools
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City of Chicago Data Portal
Community areas, neighbourhoods, wards and ward offices, the city boundary, Special Service Areas, Landmark Districts, Individual Landmarks (heritage buildings), building permits (for “What’s changing”), the ‘L’ lines and stops, library branches, DFSS community service centres, CDOT permits for transit construction, and Chicago Public Schools attendance boundaries and school profiles.
City of Chicago Data Portal Terms of Use -
Chicago Park District
Names and addresses of Park District fieldhouses, for the nearest community centre on the card.
Public facility list, chicagoparkdistrict.com
U.S. government
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U.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 2020–2024 tables (housing, commuting, home types, year built, language, ages, period of entry); TIGER boundaries for counties, municipalities, congressional and state legislative districts, tracts and Lake Michigan; and the Census Geocoder for placing addresses.
Public domain (U.S. government work); Census Bureau terms -
U.S. Department of Education, NCES (IPEDS)
Which universities and colleges appear, and their campuses.
Public domain (U.S. government work) -
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Which hospitals have an emergency department, and their ownership.
Public domain (U.S. government work), data.cms.gov -
Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
The current U.S. representative for each congressional district.
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Transit
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Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
Bus routes, stops and frequencies, and CTA trips in the transit-time lens. Data provided by Chicago Transit Authority.
CTA Developer License Agreement & Terms of Use -
Metra
Metra lines, stations and trips.
Metra developer license agreement -
Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (South Shore Line)
South Shore Line trips in the transit-time lens.
Published GTFS feed, mysouthshoreline.com
Representatives and the school board
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Open States (Plural)
Current Illinois state representatives and senators.
Public domain dedication -
Illinois Senate Redistricting Committee
Chicago Board of Education districts enacted by Public Act 103-0584.
Public record, ilsenateredistricting.com -
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners
Board of Education candidates for November 3, 2026, and the results once posted.
Public election information, chicagoelections.gov
Used for both cities
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OpenStreetMap contributors
Neighbouring municipalities and the lakeshore around Toronto, highways, Chicago’s streets and expressways, named places for search, universities, colleges and hospitals, parks and playgrounds, transit lines under construction, and the walking network for transit times. Some come through extracts by Geofabrik, BBBike and the osm-boundaries project.
© OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database Licence (ODbL) -
Nominatim (OpenStreetMap Foundation)
Address search on the website, and placing a few landmarks and towers.
Nominatim Usage Policy -
OSRM (Project OSRM)
Free-flow drive times to downtown in the suburban lens, on OpenStreetMap roads.
OSRM demo server usage policy -
Wikipedia contributors
Facts about skyscrapers: height, floors, year, use and location, from each city’s “List of tallest buildings” and the linked articles. The card’s short descriptions are written for this site.
CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikidata ids CC0 -
ESA WorldCover
Tree canopy: © ESA WorldCover project 2021 / Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021) processed by ESA WorldCover consortium.
CC BY 4.0, esa-worldcover.org -
Natural Earth
The Great Lakes away from each city’s shore.
Public domain -
toronto-bus-map (Miqell24)
Toronto’s subway, LRT and GO train lines and stations, extracted from that project’s files, which are built from the TTC and Metrolinx schedules credited above.
Underlying data: TTC and Metrolinx licences above
Software and fonts
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Leaflet
Draws the interactive map.
BSD 2-Clause -
Leaflet.PolylineOffset
Draws transit lines that share a street side by side.
MIT -
html-to-image
Saves the map as a picture.
MIT -
mapshaper, Shapely, r5py and R5
Build tools that simplify shapes and compute transit times. They run when the maps are built, not in your browser.
Each under its own open-source licence -
Inter, Archivo and IBM Plex
Typefaces for the maps (Inter, from Google Fonts) and for these pages (Archivo, IBM Plex Sans and Mono).
SIL Open Font License 1.1
Corrections
If you publish one of these sources and something here is missing or wrong, or you’d like the credit worded differently, write to hello@noumankhan.ca and I’ll fix it.