OS MasterMap Highways Network Product Guide
This document contains additional theoretical information related to OS MasterMap Highways Network. All users will find the Product Information document useful and informative.
The OS MasterMap Highways Network product family provides an authoritative road and path network for Great Britain. The products are the result of collaboration between Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace and Improvement Service to bring together Ordnance Survey’s detailed road and path information, the National Street Gazetteer (NSG), the Trunk Road Street Gazetteer (TRSG) and the Scottish Street Gazetteer (SSG).
The Highways Network integrates the Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) from the gazetteers with the most detailed definitive geometry from Ordnance Survey. The OS MasterMap Highways Network was produced in partnership with GeoPlace and the Local Government Association, and as of March 2021, it contains data created and maintained by Scottish Local Government.
The OS MasterMap Highways Network product family includes a road network, a path network, connectivity across British islands through a ferry network, routing and asset management information, as well as detailed speed information on all roads.
The OS MasterMap Highways Network product family includes three core products:
OS MasterMap Highways Network – Roads
OS MasterMap Highways Network – Routing and Asset Management Information (RAMI)
OS MasterMap Highways Network – Paths
In addition to these three core products, the OS MasterMap Highways Network product family is enhanced by three speed data products:
OS MasterMap Highways Network with Routing and Asset Management Information and Average Speed
OS MasterMap Highways Network with Routing and Asset Management Information and Speed Limits
OS MasterMap Highways Network with Routing and Asset Management Information and Average Speed and Speed Limits
These three speed data products are supplied with an additional data file which will be either Average Speed, Speed Limits or a combination of both.
The OS MasterMap Highways Network with Speed products are not available under the PSGA Contract, but are available via our Partner channel.
About GeoPlace
GeoPlace is a limited liability partnership jointly owned by the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey. It is responsible for compiling and maintaining the National Street Gazetteer (NSG).
This is the definitive referencing system used in the notification process and the coordination of street works. Under legislation, each highway authority in England and Wales is required to create and maintain its own Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) and Associated Street Data (ASD). These are then compiled into the only master index built to the national standard (BS 7666).
Standards
The OS MasterMap Highways Network has been designed to be INSPIRE compliant. INSPIRE is the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe. It is designed to ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the Member States of the European Community are compatible and usable between member states to improve decision making and operations. The INSPIRE Transport Networks Data Specification forms the basis of the specifications for the Roads, Routing and Asset Management Information and Paths products.
Technical Specifications
OS MasterMap Highways Network specifications have also been extended to include additional properties included in British Standard 7666-1:2006, Spatial datasets for geographical referencing.
Coordinate reference system
The coordinate reference system used by OS MasterMap Highways Network is the British National Grid. The British National Grid (BNG) spatial reference system uses the OSGB36 geodetic datum and a single Transverse Mercator projection for the whole of Great Britain. Positions on this projection are described using easting and northing coordinates in units of metres. The BNG is a horizontal spatial reference system only; it does not include a vertical (height) reference system.
In the Geography Markup Language (GML) data, this is represented by reference to its entry in the EPSG registry, as http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/27700.
Key features of the products
OS MasterMap Highways Network products contain several features, including the following:
Unique Street Reference Number (USRN)
Road names from the naming and numbering authority
Department for Transport (DfT) road classifications
Road maintenance authority
Motorway junction to junction information
Routing information
Vehicle height, weight, width and length restrictions information
Special designations
Road reinstatement information
Connected network across Great Britain, including islands, through the Ferry Network
Average Speed information broken down into six time periods for each day
Speed Limits
One of the key strengths of the products is the collection of street information at the local highway authority level. The benefit of this is that the data capture is at the earliest point of creation within a local highway authority and there is detailed local knowledge driven by statutory requirements.
Product applications
OS MasterMap Highways Network is designed to be used as a single source of highway asset management by private and public sectors alike. It can be used for the following applications:
As a source for legal road identifications.
To estimate costs or benefits of road policies.
For efficient funding allocations and evidence-based policy making, including:
Managing policies
Producing statistics
Allocating funding
Supporting legislation
Asset management
Journey planning, routing and navigation
Emergency service and civil contingency planning
Transport planning
Smart cities
For speed data calculations and analysis:
Congestion analysis and drive time studies.
Environmental analysis to monitor emissions and carry out standing time analysis.
Routing and route optimisation.
Planning emergency response routing.
Planning and development using traffic and infrastructure modelling.
Autonomous vehicles' usage of speed limits.
