How to get a big map of my street?

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Globalti

Legendary Member
I'm going to hold a meeting of residents of my street to discuss the problem of drivers racing through using it as a rat run to beat traffic lights on the main road.

I thought it would be a good stunt to have a big map of the street showing every house, to which we could stick a little symbol for every child living in that house. I will be inviting the local beat bobby, press, PCSO and Highways department and on Monday I'll be atteding a meeting of the Parish Council to see if they will support the meeting (and pay for the hall!)

Could I get the map from the OS or from the library, do you think? The street is 950 metres long and has 72 addresses so I'd like a fairly large map, something like a banner a metre or two long.
 

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
Yes - you should be able to go to the local library and photocopy 1:1250 OS maps for the cost of the copying. You'll have to do it in bits, but you'll be able to stick together a map that will be just under a metre long. Most London Boroughs have put their 1:1250 maps in one library in the Borough - I see that you're in Lancashire, so it would be best to check with the Library Department before pedalling down there

Failing that you can buy 1:1250 maps which are stored digitally from a host of re-sellers, usually map stores in major cities. The OS website gives details. This is expensive

Failing that you can buy online in different formats - .dwg or .pdf if memory serves. This is expensive.

Failing that you can go to Streetmap and print off little bits of your street and then stitch them together. Give yourself a bit of time for what will be a boring task.

(later edit) there is one wizard wheeze you can try. Some areas are covered by historical maps which the OS sells for not much. If your street is the same as it was in the 1890s, or close to, you can pick up the historical map for next to nowt

(second later edit) I would get your map, buy a roll of tracing paper, and use a series of sheets of tracing paper thus - draw out the major lines - property boundaries, kerbs, junctions and so on in bright felt tip and then mark up with stars, arrows whatever to make your point about conflict points. That's going to be a whole lot easier to read at a meeting, and, if you have a series of these traced diagrams it gives other people the chance to make a point with the minimum degree of fuss and misunderstanding

(third later edit) I'd get another map showing the locality - a blow up of google maps would do http://maps.google.co.uk/ and use that to show what you think is the genesis of the problem - whether it be rat-running between major streets, or people seeking a way past a jam on a major street. The point is that you can show that the use made by motorists is not what the street was designed for - useful when talking to your local councillor.

(fourth later edit) the great virtue of 1:1250 maps is that they are fantastically accurate. I've used them to plan buildings on prior to getting a measured survey and the difference between the two has been tiny - on one occasion 18mm over a 100 metre site. That's important to your case, because you will be able to measure the width of the road and compare it to the design widths in the highways section of your Council's UDP/LDF, which might say that a secondary or residential road should be (for instance) 7.2 metres wide. If it turns out that your road is less than 7.2 metres wide you will press a button with the Council

(fifth later edit) don't forget that the accuracy of the map will enable you to plot blind spots. Highways officers really do dislike blind spots.

(sixth and final later edit) pm Jonesy.
 

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
Promap is the one I use. It's as cheap as any other, but way more expensive than the library. There are 'fair use' conditions that go with using the library - planning applications are specifically deemed not to be 'fair use', but I think that RR's purpose is a fair use.
 

skrx

Active Member
I copied (breaking the crown copyright) a map from the tiles on a webserver that uses them:
attachment.php


But I think the scale is probably too small for you.

(I think the forum has made the picture smaller, the original is almost twice as wide/tall. It's from a 1:10000 map.)
 

snorri

Legendary Member
Your local authority will have a full range of maps and the permission to reprint them. Perhaps you could approach a friendly councillor, or the road safety or roads department of the LA.
 

domd1979

Veteran
Location
Staffordshire
snorri said:
Your local authority will have a full range of maps and the permission to reprint them. Perhaps you could approach a friendly councillor, or the road safety or roads department of the LA.

Definitely worth a try as if they're amenable it won't cost anything. They should be able to bung it all out on an A0 plotter, doesn't take long to do. It's "mastermap" that you'd want as the base, as this is the most accurate level of OS mapping and is all nicely coloured in.
 

Jonathan M

New Member
Location
Merseyside
snorri said:
Your local authority will have a full range of maps and the permission to reprint them. Perhaps you could approach a friendly councillor, or the road safety or roads department of the LA.

I'd have thought that the LA would have been willing to support the meeting, even if they don't want to support the residents decisions!


OT somewhat, a few months ago I was walking to work and I saw a guy in an OS hi-viz jacket measuring the dimensions of a central bollard in a local road. I asked was he surveying, and he was, but the scale of map he was updating was outrageous, in effect it had too much detail to be of use to anyone except LA's, utility companies etc, but was the basis for maps of all other scales. All contained for his purposes on a tablet type laptop with GPS. Well impressed!
 
Location
Midlands
Approach the Local Authority - Highways Road Safety Team - if they are any good they will fall over themselves to provide what you need and suitable advice and representation (also may already have it on their agenda) - a letter explaining is the best approach - post strike - email and a follow up visit to a member of the team may be best - if you can get a parish counciller to help you make the approach so much the better (most local authorities have a customer services department that filter concerns to design teams and their operation divisions and partners via parish councils)
 

killiekosmos

Veteran
Ordnance Survey (OS) sell maps and they own the copyright. While councils have licences to use OS maps this does not extend to giving them out to the public. OS wrote to all councils when FoI was introduced to 'remind' them that maps could be bought from OS and should not be given out (in the same was as your council would not give you a copy of Microsoft Office).

Why not just draw a rough outline of the street on a roll of lining paper for £5 from B&Q?
 
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