UK Open Map Data

Uli Bethke

Uli has been rocking the data world since 2001. As the Co-founder of Sonra, the data liberation company, he’s on a mission to set data free. Uli doesn’t just talk the talk—he writes the books, leads the communities, and takes the stage as a conference speaker.

Any questions or comments for Uli? Connect with him on LinkedIn.


Published on May 8, 2023
Updated on November 20, 2024

UK administrative boundaries and road network

The data is organised across two themes.

Administrative: This data set contains the polygons for UK administrative boundaries at different levels. It includes the name of the administrative area, the quadkey, and the geo coordinates.

Road: This data set covers the road network of the UK, e.g. motorways, residential streets, cycle ways, national roads etc. It includes the length of road, its usage type, the speed limit and a lot more.

The Road theme is organised along the following classes and subclasses

Classes

  • cycleway
  • local
  • motorway
  • parking
  • pedestrian
  • primary
  • recreation
  • secondary
  • service
  • tertiary

Subclasses

  • access_aisle
  • alley
  • bicycle
  • bridleway
  • crossing
  • driveway
  • footway
  • living_street
  • motorway
  • motorway_link
  • parking
  • parking_aisle
  • path
  • pedestrian_mall
  • primary
  • primary_link
  • raceway
  • residential
  • road
  • secondary
  • secondary_link
  • service
  • sidewalk
  • square
  • steps
  • tertiary
  • tertiary_link
  • track
  • trunk
  • trunk_link
  • unclassified

Tables

V_ADMINISTRATIVE

V_ROAD

Administrative Table

Below is a list of the the most important columns in the Administrative table

ColumnDescription
IDUnique identifier of the form (n/w/r) + osm id + @ (osm version). Example, version 22 of node id=1 : n1@22
CLASSClass of the feature
SUBCLASSSubclass of the feature
QUADKEYThe zoom level 15 quadkey that contains the centroid of the feature.
NAMESJSON-formatted key/value pairs containing the place name in different languages. Keys include local (the common name used in the place) and ISO language codes like en, en-US, and de.
ORIGINAL_SOURCE_TAGSThis specifies the primary OSM id and its properties. JSON-formatted key/value pairs of original OSM tags
GEO_CORDINATESEither of the two lines of latitude and longitude whose intersection determines the geographical point of a place
DISPUTE_SOURCEActual source of the disputed boundary.
ADMIN_LEVELadmin level of the boundary (if a capital city)
BORDER_TYPEIs a key which has frequently been filled by automated data imports, and has also been approved to specify the type of maritime boundary.
DISPUTED_NAMEThis specifies the disputed boundary names.
WIKIDATAWikidata ID (if present)
DESIGNATIONDesignation is used to record the legal classification of an object such as unclassified_county_road, permissive_footpath etc.
CLAIMED_BYThis specify the parties who claim the boundary
BOUNDARYThis shows the type of the administrative boundary
CONTROLLED_BYThis specify the party that actually controls the boundary
DISPUTED_BYThis specify the parties who dispute the boundary
RECOGNIZED_BYThis specifies the administrative boundary is recognised by which country.

Road Table

Below is a list of the most important columns in the Road table and a description

COLUMNSDESCRIPTION
IDUnique identifier of the form (n/w/r) + osm id + @ (osm version). Example, version 22 of node id=1 : n1@22
CLASSClass of the feature e.g. motorway, pedestrian, parking etc. It is the superset of the subclass.
SUBCLASSSubclass of the feature. Such as motorway_link belongs to motorway class.
QUADKEYThe zoom level 15 quadkey that contains the centroid of the feature.
NAMESJSON-formatted key/value pairs containing the place name in different languages. Such as Prince Of Wales Drive in English, promenade Prince Of Wales in French.
GEO_CORDINATESEither of the two lines of latitude and longitude whose intersection determines the geographical point of a place
MAXSPEEDValue of maxspeed
SURFACEValue of Surface such as unpaved, asphalt, paved etc.
IS_TUNNELTrue if tunnel in (building_passage, covered, yes)
LANESValue of lanes
LEVELValue of level
IS_COVEREDTrue if covered=yes
IS_ONEWAYTrue if oneway in (yes, 1) and false if oneway=no
LENGTH_MLength of feature in meters (if a line)
IS_PEDESTRIANTrue if (foot is not NULL and foot != no) or (bicycle is not NULL and bicycle != no)
IS_BRIDGETrue if bridge in (aqueduct, boardwalk, cantilever, covered, low_water_crossing, movable, trestle, viaduct, yes)
SURFACE_AREA_SQ_MArea of the feature in square metres (if a polygon)

Use cases and sample Queries

Use cases

Look up geo coordinates in the UK against UK administrative boundaries. Roll up and drill down into different levels of administrative boundaries.

Use the polygons of the administrative boundaries in the UK to drill down and roll up on geo-coordinates

Analyse the road network in the UK by administrative boundaries

Sample queries

Road network analysis

We will analyse the road network in the London boroughs of Camden and Croyden.

The following query will return the geo coordinates for both of those London boroughs

In a next step we can lookup the various classes and subclasses of roads from the ROAD table against the geo coordinates of Camden and Croyden.

We want to compare the types of roads that exist in both boroughs and the length in metres of the road network in each.

Uli Bethke

About the author:

Uli Bethke

Co-founder of Sonra

Uli has been rocking the data world since 2001. As the Co-founder of Sonra, the data liberation company, he’s on a mission to set data free. Uli doesn’t just talk the talk—he writes the books, leads the communities, and takes the stage as a conference speaker.

Any questions or comments for Uli? Connect with him on LinkedIn.