seems fine

pipeline/download/places.py

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 """Extract place=* nodes and railway stations from OSM PBF → data/places.parquet.
 
-Extracts named place nodes (cities, towns, suburbs, etc.) and railway stations
-(tube, national rail, DLR, etc.) for typeahead search.
+Extracts named place nodes and railway stations (tube, national rail, DLR,
+etc.) for typeahead search.
 Reuses the same england-latest.osm.pbf as pois.py.
 """
 
@@ -21,7 +21,22 @@ from pipeline.utils.england_geometry import (
     load_england_polygon,
 )
 
-PLACE_TYPES = {"city"}
+# Search can use a wider set of OSM place nodes, but travel-time destinations
+# must remain restricted to the historical city/station origin set.
+SEARCH_PLACE_TYPES = {
+    "city",
+    "town",
+    "village",
+    "suburb",
+    "neighbourhood",
+    "quarter",
+    "borough",
+    "locality",
+    "hamlet",
+    "isolated_dwelling",
+    "island",
+}
+TRAVEL_DESTINATION_PLACE_TYPES = {"city"}
 
 # Suffixes to strip from raw station names before appending the typed suffix.
 _STATION_STRIP = (
@@ -71,7 +86,13 @@ class PlaceHandler(osmium.SimpleHandler):
         self._england = england_polygon
 
     def _add(
-        self, name: str, place_type: str, lat: float, lon: float, population: int
+        self,
+        name: str,
+        place_type: str,
+        lat: float,
+        lon: float,
+        population: int,
+        travel_destination: bool,
     ) -> None:
         self.places.append(
             {
@@ -80,6 +101,7 @@ class PlaceHandler(osmium.SimpleHandler):
                 "lat": lat,
                 "lon": lon,
                 "population": population,
+                "travel_destination": travel_destination,
             }
         )
         self._progress.set_postfix(places=f"{len(self.places):,}", refresh=False)
@@ -107,10 +129,17 @@ class PlaceHandler(osmium.SimpleHandler):
         except ValueError:
             population = 0
 
-        # place=* nodes (cities, towns, suburbs, etc.)
+        # place=* nodes
         place_type = n.tags.get("place")
-        if place_type in PLACE_TYPES:
-            self._add(name, place_type, lat, lon, population)
+        if place_type in SEARCH_PLACE_TYPES:
+            self._add(
+                name,
+                place_type,
+                lat,
+                lon,
+                population,
+                travel_destination=place_type in TRAVEL_DESTINATION_PLACE_TYPES,
+            )
             return
 
         # Railway stations (tube, national rail, DLR, overground, Elizabeth line)
@@ -126,7 +155,14 @@ class PlaceHandler(osmium.SimpleHandler):
             ):
                 return
             display_name = _station_display_name(name, tags)
-            self._add(display_name, "station", lat, lon, population)
+            self._add(
+                display_name,
+                "station",
+                lat,
+                lon,
+                population,
+                travel_destination=True,
+            )
             return
 
 
@@ -147,7 +183,7 @@ def main() -> None:
     pbf_file = args.pbf
     england_polygon = load_england_polygon(args.boundary)
 
-    print("Extracting place nodes: cities + railway stations")
+    print("Extracting search place nodes + railway stations")
     with tqdm(
         unit=" elements",
         unit_scale=True,