Newsletter

The essence of map quality

Digital maps are used in many situations and by both authorities and private persons. Often these maps are the result of a fusion of maps from different sources. Some sources only describe state roads or highways, while other source describe rural roads or bike-paths. In the fusion process, or during the initial digitalisation, errors in the map may occur. These errors can prevent road segments to snap in the map, although the physical roads are well connected. Other errors may relate to the categorization of roads or the allowed directions of travel on each segment.

If the purpose of putting together a map is merely to have a visual representation of the physical road network, then most of these errors have little consequences. If on the other hand, the road network is to be used by autonomous vehicles when driving or algorithms to calculate traffic behaviour, it it essential that the map represents the real world as good as possible. To ensure this the Digital Map Quality tool from Hermes Traffic Intelligence may be applied. This tool traverses the road network, and mark locations where:

• segments do not snap,
• classification is out of order,
• travel direction prevents sections of the road network to be travelled,
• segments are digitized more than once,
• the road network is divided into more networks without connections.

Try it out

The Digital Map Quality™ (DMQ™) service is not yet available via the HOTS™ platform. If you would like to see the results from applying the tool to your map, please send us a sample from your map to info@hermestraffic.com as a shapefile. The first ten kilometres of your map will be processed free of charge, and the results will be send back to you