How many members of the public know how to use an OS map? Not that many.
How many members of the public can easily / quickly inter-act with their mobile 'phone to use a simple map function (with satellite picture overlay, as per Google maps, something that most will have been using for years)? Lots & lots.
Ergo, much better than OS Locate (from which you can share a location, but via text message / email - but it shows as a very detailed lat / long rather than grid reference). Yes, OS Locate also gives a GR but unless you have paid for the relevant map download, you can’t reference this against any map landmarks (if you can actually see any - at night / bad weather, for example).
How many members of the emergency services can??? How many even have access to digital or paper maps in their wagons?? I’ve been in 2 scenarios where a grid reference - although available - was not required. They wanted a postal address. However, ive also been in one where the postcode area was so big, it too was useless - and we ended up describing the ground features and environment.
W3W is a solid tool. Its not the only tool. But it has got a fair amount of potential. Nationally - but also globally.
The underlying accuracy from the system will not be better than the accuracy of the GPS system, so what little additional granularity the system has over and 8-fig OS grid reference is effectively pointless.
Better then to use the established, standard grid reference system read from a screen on a phone rather than some other invented system read from a phone.
Nobody needs to understand how grid references work to use this system, just how to read form a screen or type into a computer. With a grid ref, those in the know and with the skills/kit can make it more accurate, not that there is a benefit to that, and those with a map can plot it normally.
Grids also work with no power and no signal, so this is a skill we should not allow to fade. There may also be a Darwinist justification…
3 words mean nothing… Nobody can hear those words and know where to go. It relies solely on the ability to use those words to look up a location via a software system.
Therefore the “how many people can use a map and compass” argument falls on its backside.
We can just as easily input a grid reference, or even a Lat and Long, into an equivalent software system and get the same result.
This system doesn’t suddenly bring accurate location to the masses. It’s just another way to skin a cat, and one which - apparently - has a costly license attached to it.
I still say it’s a gimmick.
Sure, it gives a slightly more accurate location, but is that actually a benefit?
In how many situations, particularly for the emergency services, is a 3x3m area going to be perfectly fine, but a 10x10m unacceptable? If there is then I can give a 10 figure grid reference - that gives us a 1x1m square.
don’t look at this as a plotting system useful where there are no street names or building numbers, but universal, where a street name is not accurate enough.
which corner of the building your standing at waiting for a cab
which entrance to the university campus you’re at…
Okay… But that’s not really relevant for “emergency location” which is what this thread is about.
We can already give a location with a perfectly acceptable degree of accuracy thanks to the OS system.
The brevity argument also falls on its face once we consider that we have to type these things into a system for them to mean anything at all… 17 characters for the 3 word location described in the first post. We could give a 14 figure grid reference in less characters which would be far more accurate than a 3x3m square.
my in-laws have a post code which doesn’t lead to their front door…it leads to a driveway to the courtyard of their neighbours…
if i wanted the “boys in blue” to come to me, i would have to stand at that drive way and direct them around to the front door when they arrived as the limited pedestrian access would be pointless.
consider the example already offered, a University campus, or even a town university. get a call “meet me at X building on Y street” and there could be two or more doors.
My place of work has three entrances to get on site, but from there 6 different building to get to…of which many numerous doors to choose from. offering a w3w option indicates which end of a building to aim for
For emergency services, next gen of this or other is surely an app whereby the call handler gives you a code that you enter and send your location direct to them. Call handler retrieves and then sends it direct to the despatched units.
agreed
but given they live in the back of beyond
white cottage, london road, doesn’t narrow the position down to anything closer than a 3 mile stretch
the post code get them closer to within the group of houses but at the wrong entrance…
I confess to not being an expert, but didn’t someone above say that there is a fairly noteable licence fee?
Even if it is totally free I’m still saying the same thing - “What does this give us which we don’t already have?”
Global - okay. That may be a useful if I’m ever abroad and need to give the emergency services a precise location (assuming that the country’s services use it). I could still give them Lat and Long however.
But here in the UK if I need the emergency services why should I care that the OS system is UK only?.. I’m in the UK!