Computerized road network
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• Problems of depot-siting, fleet planning, vehicle scheduling, amenities location and town planning are critically dependent on the accuracy of measurements of time and distance.
ROADNET, a database suite developed by M. J. Bevan Ltd, of Hitchin, contains all significant road linkages in the British Isles. The suite will produce from this databank the minimum travel times and mileage between all pairs of points in a set of origins and destinations, To do this it needs only the National Grid reference co-ordinates of those points, and the speed for each jurisdiction of road that may be used for the trips intended.
The philosophy behind ROADNET is that all parts of an area that are not actually roads are barriers to a road-bound vehicle. By coding all roads rather than a bare minimum of barriers, the cost of computation falls considerably.
ROADNET is available through M. J. Bevan's computer bureau, in which case basic data is continually updated, or it may be leased or purchased, customers feeding coded sheets into their own machines.
A companion program called TRANSIT allows long-term distribution planning strategies to be compared. The package generates alternative possibilities depending upon the location of customers and the fleet mix envisaged.
Full details from: M. J. Bevan Ltd, Bevan House, Bancroft Court, Hitchin, Herts. (tel: Hitchin 54331).