OS Multi Modal Routing Network

A Lightning Talk

What is the OS Multi-modal Routing Network

The OS Multi-modal Routing Network (OS MRN) is a new premium product dedicated for multi-modal routing of people and goods, designed for use in routing applications.

The OS MRN is a routable network providing connectivity between OS NGD Road, Path, Ferry and Rail data, brought together by Modal Change Points.

It has been designed and built using the OpenStreetMap data schema to facilitate straightforward import into many open-source and proprietary routing software libraries.

This enables simple A-to-B routing straight out of the box, and more complex and optimised multi-modal routing for those with more advanced routing or software knowledge and access to 3rd party data

OS MRN data (background) and structure (inset)

Why did we build OS MRN?​

The development of OS MRN has been driven by customer requirements.​ ​'Modal Change Points' were identified as a high priority for customers to enable them to carry out multi-modal routing.​

​Based on customer feedback during user engagement, we extended this ask to address further pain points and deliver greater value.​

• Existing OS Highways network takes a lot of post-processing to make it 'truly' routable.​

• Highways combines asset management information and routing information so there is a lot of extra data to manage.​

• We wanted to deliver something more usable to customers than just the 'Modal Change Points'.​

Feature types​

Transport Link

Transport Link

A linear representation of where people can travel along our network. These are equivalent to our Highways Road links and Path links.

Transport Node

Transport Node

Builds up the topology of the network and connects Transport Links together. Also represent Modal Change points where you can change travel modes.

Turn Restriction

Turn Restriction

Highlights the geometry of the turn and provide attribution to say what the vehicle must do at that turn and any vehicles that are exempted. ​

Transport Links​

Transport Links take the existing transport information and combine it into one feature type:​

• OS NGD Road Links​

• OS NGD Path and Connecting Links​

• OS NGD Ferry Links​

• OS NGD Railway Links​

• OS NGD Access Restrictions​

• OS NGD Speeds​

They also incorporate Modal Change links which are a linear spatial object representing a logical connection between the transport network and a transport site.​

The Transport Link will be attributed with the osid of the corresponding OS parent feature that is published in the OS NGD Transport Network Collection.​

There will be information about the type of link (e.g. highway='motorway' or rail='no') and Access Restriction information per vehicle type (derived by looking at OS NGD Access Restrictions).​

There will be two average speed attributes: 1) a [conditional] delimited list of all the speeds at different time periods; and 2) a single average speed using the Mon-Fri 12-2pm period.​

Each Transport Link provides a reference to the Transport Nodes in direction order start to end.​

Transport Links

Transport Nodes​

Transport Nodes take the existing transport information and combine it into one feature type:​

• OS NGD Road Nodes​

• OS NGD Path and Connecting Nodes​

• OS NGD Ferry Nodes​

• OS NGD Railway Nodes​

They also incorporate Modal Change nodes (from OS NGD Sites) and Vertex nodes (from the OS NGD Road Link geometries).​

The Modal Change nodes have been derived from specific transport sites (Railway Stations, Ferry Terminals, Docks, Bus Station, Coach Station, Tram Station, Air Terminals, Airfield) and the point sits in the primary building of that site.​

The Transport Node will be attributed with the osid of the corresponding OS parent feature that is published in the OS NGD Transport Network Collection.​

If the Transport Nodes have been split apart due to grade separation, the original node will keep the existing osid and the additional nodes will be indicated with the suffix --1 or --2 depending on the grade separation value. The geometries of grade separated Transport Nodes have also been offset (5cm in both the X and Y axes) to discount any issues with routing software collapsing point spatial objects at the same position.​

Transport Nodes

Turn Restrictions​

Turn Restrictions take the existing OS NGD Turn Restrictions.​

They also incorporate a description of the turn restriction (e.g. restriction='no_right_turn' or restriction='only_straight_on'). The 'direction of the turn' values are algorithm generated.​

As with the Transport Node and Transport Link features, there will be the osid of the corresponding OS parent feature that is published in the OS NGD Transport RAMI Collection.​

Because the data is taken from the NGD Turn Restrictions, it will also have conditional values for when the turn restriction only exists on specific times or days.​

Likewise, there will attribution for when a Turn Restriction applies only to a particular vehicle type; or the vehicle types for which the Turn Restriction does not apply.​

Turn Restrictions

Turn Restrictions will take the form from-to-via where:​

• from is the wayid of the first Transport Link involved in the turn restriction.​

• to is the wayid of the last Transport Link involved in the turn restriction.​

• via is the nodeid of the Transport Node at the junction (when there are only two links involved in the turn restriction); or a wayid list of all the Transport Links which are not the from or to link (when there are more than two links involved in the turn restriction).​

Supply formats

OS MRN comes in two formats:​

OpenStreetMap PBF​

This is an alternative to the original OSM XML format.​

Why PBF?​

PBF ("Protocolbuffer Binary Format") is primarily intended as an alternative to the XML format. It is about half of the size of a gzipped planet and about 30% smaller than a bzipped planet. It is also about 5x faster to write than a gzipped planet and 6x faster to read than a gzipped planet. The format was designed to support future extensibility and flexibility. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/PBF_Format​

A lot of software used in the OSM project already supports PBF in addition to the original XML format, plus there are several tools to convert from PBF to OSM XML and vice versa.​

OGC GeoPackage (GPKG)​

The GPKG has been designed to complement the OpenStreetMap schema with three layers:​

• mrn_ntwk_transportlink (Line String) => way​

• mrn_ntwk_transportnode (Point) => node​

• mrn_ntwk_turnrestriction (Multi Line String) => relation​

​

Both data formats will be provided in EPSG:4326 with coordinates as latitude and longitude.​

Full resupply each month, download only and no history​.​

GB and AOI access.​

Attribution​

List of OS MRN Attributes (click to enlarge)

Use cases​

OS MRN is specifically designed for use cases that require multi-modal routing, supporting a wide variety of segments including Transport, Protection of Life, and Citizen Services.​

• Routing pupils from home to schools and colleges. ​

• Supporting the development and delivery of Local Authority transport plans to provide fair and equitable access to services and ensure they are aligned to government policy. ​

• Planning expected response times for incidents for emergency services. ​

• Support the planning of Active Travel infrastructure.​

• Support commercial organisations to optimise freight logistics. ​

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Links that may be useful:

OS MRN Homepage (Data Products):

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/os-multi-modal-routing-network

Documentation:​

https://docs.os.uk/os-downloads/networks/os-multi-modal-routing-network

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This content has been developed from what was originally a Lightning Talk PowerPoint slide set. These slides are available to PSGA members to view and download from the PSGA members area of the OS website