A-Z Maps Renew Partnership With PocketGPSWorld.com

[RobBrady]

In 1936, when the founder of A-Z, Phyllis Pearsall, delivered 250 copies of her London atlas in a wheelbarrow to newsagent WH Smith, no one quite knew how successful her project would be.

Phyllis's mapping 'project' involved walking and noting 3000 miles of 23,000 London streets, waking up at 5am everyday, and not going to bed until after an 18-hour working day.

Yes, maps were already for sale, but the best available was from Ordnance Survey and, at that time, 17 years old... and nowadays our forums are full of visitors complaining that the satnav map they just bought is 6 months out of date - how times change!

I've always loved maps and there is nothing I love more than opening up a brand spanking new road atlas. No torn pages, no earmarks, no broken spine, no coffee cup stains on the cover. Just new, clean shiny pages.

Such an object dropped on my doormat recently. It was the Britain Road Atlas 2009 Edition, courtesy of A to Z. For the sake of transparency, it is the first of many PocketGPSWorld.com partnership publications to launch this year and they've asked me to give it a critical eye and report back.

My first thoughts on opening it is how different it is to my old one. It was in simpler times when I bought my last copy back in the 80's and I dare say it would bear very little resemblance to Phyllis's original work back in 1936!

Firstly, it contains PocketGPSWorld.com's Safety Camera Locations. It features locations on the road and main route mapping displaying the maximum speed limit at each of these locations. More than 4000 fixed and long-term road works camera locations are shown, including Gatso, Truvelo, SPECS and Monitron camera types.

It also contains 3D topography (satellite relief mapping data) created from the NASA Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. To acquire topographic data, the Shuttle payload was outfitted with two radar antennas. Two radar images were taken from slightly different locations and differences between these images allow for the calculation of surface elevation.

A comprehensive index lists over 31,000 locality names including selected places of interest. It also provides 70 selected major towns and city centre plans alongside maps of the principal 16 airports and seaports, journey route planning and mileage chart.

Additionally, it has main route maps covering London, Birmingham and Manchester and a useful Channel Tunnel plan outlining access to the Folkestone and Calais Terminals. Also shown are selected truckstop locations, details of motorway junctions with limited interchange and a detailed section with information about the Safety Cameras.

All in all an excellent, simple to use atlas, with a range of sizes and bindings to suit convenience and budget. It has a clear, easy to read reference section and provides the perfect route planner or backup when your satnav goes down!

The full selection of A-Z atlases are available for sale through our affiliation with Amazon
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Robert Brady

[FrequentFlyer]

So, you licence your camera data to A-Z ? And what version would that be ? ie 6/12 months old ?

[RobBrady]

New, totally up-to-date data for each print run of fixed and long-term cameras.
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Robert Brady

[Pocketgps]

[MaFt]

don't forget there are obviously people who still use paper maps (why else would they sell them still?!) so it is a logical step for map makers to include information on cameras.

no map is ever going to be up to date, new roads change all the time however if you use a map from, say, 2006 you will be aware that there may be roads data) that is out of date and now wrong. same goes for speed camera data printed in a map... however, some warning is surely better than nothing?

MaFt

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