In light of the European Commission’s new road safety regulations requiring speed limiters in new vehicles by 2022, we now feel obliged to prioritize the speed limit changes made in Map Creator compared to changes made to other navigation attributes.

In today’s world, we all recognize the impact of cars, roads and even speed limits and see with our own eyes how they can affect our daily lives in many ways. It is with this intention and perspective that we are also participating in the European Union’s “Intelligent Speed Assistance” (ISA) project.

What exactly is behind the ISA project? 

The push for mandatory speed limiters was spearheaded by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), which claims that the limiters will reduce road accidents by 30% and save around 25,000 lives within 15 years of coming into force. After the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission reached a political agreement, the proposals were then set to be formally approved by the European Parliament and the Council.

Some articles on the ISA regulations from different external sources:

Briefing: Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA)

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/103530/uk-set-to-adopt-eu-mandated-speed-limiters

We also want to make sure that we contribute to increasing safety on our roads by keeping the quality and accuracy of the speed limits on the roads in our navigation maps at a high level or improving them where necessary. Our communities are a valued pillar of the updating process and ultimately it is you who contribute with your local knowledge and skills to make your areas safer for all participants.

How will this affect your activities in Map Creator? 

So now that changes to speed limits in the Map Creator will take priority in moderating your edits in the near future, we will not be able to dedicate our full capacity to processing edits from other categories of navigation attributes over the next few months. For example, it may now take longer than usual to process a new or changed turn restriction or a changed one-way street. We understand that this can be frustrating for some mappers, for which we are truly sorry. The good news is that this is only temporary and in the meantime you can focus on speed limit edits if there is a need for them in your area. Because these changes will certainly have an effect on ISA quality in the future.

We are already running some special campaigns for Speed Limits via our well-known Map Alert approach, more details here . So the edits in these campaigns as well as other speed limit changes are currently being prioritized.

Being a mapper and updating the map can sometimes feel like a Sisyphean task: You are mapping a real world, but one that is constantly changing. We want you to feel confident that all your edits in the Map Creator matter and will be considered by us.

On behalf of the entire WEU Community Team, we would like to thank you for your contributions and hope for your understanding.

Your WEU Community Team