OS Open Roads Documentation

Here you will find all documentation for the OS Open Roads product.

OS Open Roads is a high-level digital representation of Great Britain's road network. The links represent an approximate central alignment of the road carriageway and include roads classified by the National or Local Highway authority (for example, A roads) and unclassified roads, which together make up Great Britain’s road network.

This product is updated every six months in April and October.

OS Open roads map data

OS Open Roads is a generalised product which is automatically simplified from Ordnance Survey large-scale data. Generalisation is the process of reducing the scale and complexity of the data whilst maintaining the important elements and characteristics of the features. The appropriate product scale is 1:25 000, with a recommended viewing scale range of 1:15 000 to 1:30 000.

Benefits

Capture answers to road questions

How many miles of roads are there in the country? What and where’s within 10miles of this location? OS Open Roads lets you answer questions like these.

Work with definitive road information

By underpinning your reporting tool with OS Open Roads, you’ll give highways teams a head-start on fixing issues like potholes.

Use Cases

The OS Open Roads product may be used for applications such as, but not limited to:

• Assigning information to the road network for both personal and business use.

• High-level analytical queries, for example, how many kilometres of road there are in Great Britain, an individual country or a region and simple drive time analysis, for example, what is within a 25-minute drive of any given location?

• Identifying community problems and reporting back to a relevant authority.

Detailed turn-by-turn routing is not supported in OS Open Roads; this requires the additional detail and complexity available in OS MasterMap Highways Network.

Definitive details of the responsibility for road maintenance are not supported in OS Open Roads; this requires the additional detail held in OS MasterMap Highways Network – Routing and Asset Management Information (RAMI).

Summary

• Access: Download

• Category: Networks

• Data theme: Transport

• Data structure: Vector – Topologically structured link and node network

• Coverage: Great Britain

• Scale: 1:15 000 to 1:30 000

• Format: ESRI Shapefile, GeoPackage, GML 3.2.1, vector tiles

• Ordering area: All of Great Britain

• Publication months: April, October

Additional Information

OS Open Roads coverage

OS Open Roads is available to download as a national set. The product has been split into 100km² so you can work with the specific area you require easily.

In-vehicle navigation requirements

OS Open Roads is not suitable for use for in-vehicle navigation systems. For the route restriction information that your users would need (such as one-way systems, width and height restrictions), we recommend using the OS MasterMap Highways Network – Routing and Asset Management Information (RAMI) product instead.

How to get this product

Access to this OS OpenData product is free through the OS Data Hub.

Sample Data

Visualise OS Open Roads sample data online

This product is available to try out free online using one of our three sets of sample data (Exeter, Newport and Inverness) through the OS MasterMap Product Viewer:

OS MasterMap Product Viewer

Interactive demonstrator of OS MasterMap Generation data

What's next?

To access additional documentation and resources relating to this product, please refer to the following:

Overview

The overview introduces OS Open Roads and gives context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of uses, and listing details such as file sizes, supply formats, etc.

Technical Specification

The technical specification provides detailed technical information about OS Open Roads. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.

Downloads

The downloads page provides links and resources to support the application of OS Open Roads within your environment.

Ordnance Survey Website

View OS Open Roads product information and find out how to get this product on the OS website.

New users should start with the Overview to gain high-level insight into the product. The Technical Specification contains detailed technical insights.