National Highways believes that a new ‘Digital Mapping’ system of all of England’s motorways, A-roads and major routes could be transformative for road safety.
The digital model was developed by Ordnance Survey (OS) in partnership with National Highways, with more than 4,500 miles of road digitised in a first for UK roads.
The idea is that it will help to create a live picture of the busiest routes that can feed back into sat nav, mapping, telematics and fleet management software to create a more efficient, safer road network for everyone.
Is a Digital Evolution The Key To Road Safety?
For decades, the Shared Rural Network (SRN) has relied on static mapping and manual updates, meaning that accurate data has been a shot in the dark.
But this new system provides a dynamic feed of information, including lane closures, diversion routes and speed-limit changes, while a built-in feedback mechanism allows users to report data-quality issues, ensuring continuous improvement.
The idea, National Highways say, is to form a ‘common geography’ across both public and commercial services, which essentially means that route-planning apps, traffic control systems and all software attached to the UK road network will be able to communicate with each other.
There is hope that this will unify technology and create a seamless experience for route planning, traffic management and road safety moving forward.
According to National Highways, delays on England’s roads cost around £3 billion each year, and the Department for Transport reports that average delays have risen to 11.6 seconds per vehicle per mile, which is up 5.5% in the last year.
Unsurprisingly, London has been hit hardest, with average speeds down by 4mph since last year, while the picture nationally remains on the downturn.
For fleets, that means longer journeys, more time spent in traffic, more driver fatigue, rising fuel costs and less efficient route planning.
Experts believe that by giving operators clearer, real-time insight into closures, diversions and bottlenecks, the digital model can help cut journey times, reduce risk and save money.
Safer, More Efficient Roads For Fleets
With accurate, constantly updated mapping data, route-planning software can anticipate lane closures and congestion long before a driver encounters them…
The idea is that by having one system that feeds data into all traffic management software, whether that’s commercial, private, public or controlled by National Highways, it’ll help everyone get a better picture of their ideal route at any given time based on real-time data.
Car manufacturers are also expected to feed the same data into in-vehicle navigation, providing instant updates on hazard warnings, signage changes and speed restrictions.
How the new digital mapping system works in practice remains to be seen, but it’s clear that there is clear thought and strategy being put in place in a bid to improve road safety, which can only be a positive in the coming years.
Combined with smart telematics and driver-behaviour insight, tools like Risk Monitor and Telematics Monitor already give fleets real-time oversight of performance and compliance, and with richer data from the SRN, that picture becomes clearer than ever.
Because safer, more efficient journeys don’t just save time, they save lives.
