Five million drivers using outdated maps

Before you plan your next journey, check the date on your road map – that’s the advice from Trafficmaster, which has found some five million drivers could be wasting hours trying to navigate with road maps from 2000 or earlier, while 364,000 still refer to maps from the 1980s.

One in every 100 drivers over 55 are even referring to maps produced pre-1950, which pre-date even Britain’s first stretch of motorway, the Preston bypass, opened in 1958.

Trafficmaster warns there have been significant changes to the UK’s road network even over the past ten years.

The Trafficmaster figures also show a shift towards sat nav, with as many as one in five motorists (21 per cent) now favouring more modern methods of route planning. But the company also warns many satellite navigation systems do not guarantee completely up-to-date maps.

Philip Hale, spokesman for Trafficmaster, said: “We are all driving further than ever before and on regularly congested roads, so to find the best route, you need to know all your options. Outdated maps are at best unhelpful and at worst distracting and dangerous to follow. Even the sat nav map in your car may be one or two years old.

“Road improvements and changes are happening all the time and you could just find problems rather than your destination if you rely on an outdated map. You need to make sure you have the right tool for the job”, he concluded.

Trafficmaster believes the ability to navigate using the best routes and avoiding jams could help reduce UK congestion for all and reduce environmental impact. Trafficmaster’s Smartnav customers already save an average of four hours a month on the road, by avoiding jams and taking the best routes, equivalent to 300,000 working days each year.