There have been a number of important recent advances in digital technologies that impact on travel. This chapter considers the by now generally familiar navigation devices, which we acquire as apps for our smartphones or find in our new cars. These offer direct benefits to individuals but also have the potential to benefit all road users by improving the operations of the network.

The key technology is satellite navigation (satnav), which uses satellites to provide spatial positioning by means of small receivers that determine location to high precision. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the US version. Russia, China and the European Union have developed similar systems.

Digital mapping has essentially digitized traditional paper maps, in the same way that digital documents have digitized their paper versions. However, digital maps have the capacity to accommodate vast amounts of data, including from satellite images and street level information, data that can be readily updated, including traffic information in real time. The combination of satnav location and digital mapping provides a navigation service. For ships and planes, this takes the form of a recommended course between waypoints. For road vehicles, turn-by-turn route guidance is provided.

Satnav location allows the progress of vehicles to be monitored and congested conditions to be detected. Real-time traffic information is included in the most useful route guidance, pioneered notably by Waze, an Israeli tech start-up, an approach now widely adopted. This collects crowd-sourced data about traffic conditions from users’ satnav devices, including slow going in congested traffic, and feeds back suggestions for routes with least travel time, taking account of traffic conditions. Also provided are estimated journey times in advance of setting out. In 2013 Waze became a subsidiary of Google, which employs the Waze technology for route guidance for Google Maps. These smartphone apps are free to use and are funded from advertisers who pay to have their locations indicated on the map by small icons.

Optimizing the road network

A challenge for road authorities is to optimize traffic flows on their networks, to minimize delays and improve reliability. An approach adopted on Britain’s strategic road network is known as “smart motorways”.