Ordnance Survey drives ahead.......

13 September 2007, 3:58pm

..... in demand-responsive transport services!

Redditch Borough Council and Hampshire County Council are taking advantage of Ordnance Survey's most detailed transport information to help them run demand-led community services.

Armed with information from OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer, both Redditch and Hampshire Councils have been able to provide transport services that are more efficient and flexible to the demand of its users.

OS MasterMap ITN Layer is intelligent data that includes a whole host of road restriction information, including the road lay-out, weight and height restrictions, and one-way streets. By making use of this information users can improve routing efficiencies.

Running conventional fixed-route, fixed-stop transport services on a timetable is expensive and inflexible. Demand-responsive transport (DRT) enables local authorities to be more cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

Both community transport services, Dial-a-Ride in Redditch and CANGO in Hampshire, have seen increases in demand over the past months that a manual booking and routing system would have difficulty coping with.

To solve this problem the councils are using OS MasterMap ITN Layer within an application called MobiRouter from Mobisoft (UK) Limited. This allows council staff to assess journey booking requests and select the most appropriate and efficient routes.

June Armstrong, Community Transport Manager for Hampshire County Council, comments, "We could not have run our demand-responsive service without OS MasterMap ITN Layer and MobiRouter. We can provide journey opportunities over a large area of rural Hampshire and maximise vehicle utilisation."

Peter Rose, Redditch Dial-a-Ride Manager, adds, "We can now do 25% more journeys with the same number of vehicles by optimising the routes. This results in significant improvements in the service for our users. "We've also reduced fuel consumption whilst increasing fare income by 25%."

The OS MasterMap ITN Layer contains 99.21% of road links and more than 740,000 named roads nationwide, from motorways to alleyways, making it incredibly detailed and versatile.

Peter ter Haar, Ordnance Survey's Director of Products, says, "It's great to see that our detailed transport data has allowed both Redditch Borough Council and Hampshire County Council to both improve the service they provide and save money by raising efficiency."

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