Ordnance Survey (OS) Street View - Most Downloaded Product

Since April 1, 2010 (launch of OS OpenData), the most downloaded product is Ordnance Survey (OS) Street View, with OS Vector Map District (which was released in May) swiftly catching up. Spatial Geographic Services and Applications Limited (SGSA Ltd) is using OS Street View as a base before adding road routing information, which could be vitally important to our emergency services.

Ron Linton from SGSA said, “What I am doing is incorporating all the road routing information: not only traffic-calming data but also information on one‑way streets, steep hills, gates, fords, no entries and so on; which will help when planning the best routes, whether it is for the emergency services, delivery companies or someone using their satnav on holiday.”

The huge variety of applications of OS OpenData have seen the locations of pharmacies and train stations across Great Britain being mapped – using 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster and Code-Point Open – and can be seen at data.gov.uk. Meanwhile, councils are using the datasets to show residents the nearest recycling facilities or latest planning applications. One of the more unusual uses has been to map the position of 250 brightly painted elephants across central London this summer.

Peter ter Haar, Ordnance Survey’s Director of Products, said, “We’ve been really excited watching the success of OS OpenData over the last three months and listening to the buzz it’s created in the geographic information world and beyond. Now we’re actually seeing our data being used in a myriad of new ways and benefitting charities, businesses and individuals.”