How are road speeds allocated to each road link?

Road classifications

For a broad-brush approach to network planning or to calculate large scale catchments, the simplest road classification speeds are suitable. This ensures major roads are faster than minor ones. However, roads in an urban area may be slower than those of the same class outside a city, so MapMechanics standard speeds also include variations between urban and rural roads.

GPS signals from real vehicles on the move

MapMechanics pioneered the allocation of speeds to road networks from millions of GPS signals recorded from real journeys, to create off-the-shelf products for GIS and map analysis use. The technical team continue to enhance the technique and now we offer speeds for different times of day and different vehicle types, created from billions of signals and attached to every link in a digital map.The GPS data is originated by the traffic information specialist ITIS, then processed and allocated to different networks (eg. NAVTEQ GB street products, AA road data or Ordnance Survey ITN mapping).

Traffic Patterns

Like the sound of speeds captured from GPS, but need to work outside Great Britain? MapMechanics can supply NAVTEQ Traffic Patterns for many countries around the globe. This product also uses GPS information to indicate the likely speed range on a road link. It is developing rapidly and currently allocates speeds to all road types (classes 1-5) in most of Western Europe and Australia and provides the highest detail available in other countries.

Your own experience

Does your organisation have preferred routes, do you always direct your fleet to travel along major roads even if a minor road looks shorter, are your heavy vehicles normally 10% slower? Do you need speed files reflecting seasonality or day of the week? MapMechanics can work with you to create speed files that reflect the way your business works.