FAQ
The questions officers ask us first.
If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Who is it for?
Local highway authorities, police forces and the road safety partnerships between them. In a council, it is built for road safety, network management and transport planning teams. Structures and bus teams have their own tools in it. In a police force, it is for roads policing.
What does it actually do?
It shows where to act on your roads, and gives you the evidence to say why. Injury collisions go on heatmaps, and every street in your council is ranked, and compared with streets like it. Each street in Great Britain has estimated traffic and speeds, and a collision report you can download. Abnormal load notifications arrive mapped and checked against your structures. It also shows where buses lose time, and puts your closures and diversions on a public map.
Can the public see it?
Yes, the network map is open to anyone, with no account. Residents see closures, streetworks and every police-reported injury collision, street by street. Live buses, bus stops and DfT traffic counts are open too. Heatmaps, rankings, the modelled traffic figures and the bus routes are for signed-in councils and police forces. So are street collision reports, publishing your own orders and the abnormal load tools.
Can we get a report on one street?
Yes. Tap any street on the map for its collisions and speed limit. Signed in, you also see its estimated traffic and speeds, its bus services and its properties. The street collision report adds where it ranks in your council and what a street like it would have. Download it as a PDF, ready to send.
How does it handle abnormal load notifications?
Auroute works with ESDAL and email: forward them to your own Auroute address and each route lands on your dashboard, mapped. It is checked for your structures, streetworks on the movement dates and past collisions involving lorries. Each structure is checked axle by axle against the declared vehicle. The call stays with your engineer. A load that fits a route you have already approved is marked automatically.
Will it send our temporary orders (TTROs) to D-TRO?
Yes. D-TRO is the Department for Transport's service for digital traffic regulation orders in England. When the duty to send orders to it starts, Auroute sends the temporary orders and notices you put on the map, so nobody types them in twice. You still make the order and give the usual notices.
Can it tell us where to do speed checks?
Yes. The street collision rankings, hotspots by time of day and 85th percentile speeds point to the streets worth a look. Where a street's speed is an estimate, survey it first. Then agree sites with the police from the collision record and the measured speeds. It works on places and times, never people.
Can we use the figures in a committee report?
Yes. Each figure is labelled counted, measured or estimated, and how we work them out is published. You know which figures will bear weight. Costs to society use the DfT's 2024 values, and are worked out only for collisions that happened.
Where does the data come from?
Mostly national open data, kept up to date by us. Roads come from Ordnance Survey, and collisions and traffic counts from the DfT. Streetworks come from Street Manager, and buses from the Bus Open Data Service. Then there is whatever you add yourself. Each source and its licence is on our data and licences page.
Can we add our own data?
Yes. Council admins draw closures, diversions and orders on the map and publish them in a few taps. Your structures and limits sit in one register, and every abnormal load is checked against them. Send us your traffic counts and speed surveys as a CSV and we add them. Overnight they take priority on their road and improve the estimates around it.
How long does it take to get going?
There is nothing to install and no data to send us first. We switch on Microsoft sign-in for your organisation and add your first administrator, who adds colleagues. Your IT team may need to approve the app once. After that it opens on your area. For abnormal loads, forward your notifications to the address we give you.
What happens to our data?
It stays yours. It is stored in London and encrypted. Your staff sign in with their own named accounts. Review links in our emails open one notification and expire after 7 days. Ask and we will send you a full copy. We can also send our security paperwork, a data processing agreement and answers for your data protection impact assessment (DPIA).
What does it cost?
It depends on the size of your authority and which parts you take. We give you an indicative price on the first call, so you can check it against your budget and procurement route.