5 character post codes

Spider-101 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 17, 2004 Posts: 18

I'm considering a Navman iCN 510. Like any systems you can only input the first 5 characters of a postcode. My question is what is the area covered by a typical 5 character post code? Would it take you down to a street, within half a mile, or what?

Tim Buxton · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 6:10 pm Post subject:

I think it depends on how dense the housing is. For instance, typing in the first part of my postcode (RH6 8) into Autoroute 2005, the scale in the top right hand corner sets to 0.8 of a mile. Do the same for my parents' (LE15 7) and the zoom sets to 3 miles. Would you be using it to navigate purely by postcode, without even a street address?
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Tim

DavidW · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 6:15 pm Post subject:

Five characters can be as much as an entire town of around ten thousand people. That's certainly true for where I live - MKxx 1 is my town, MKxx 2 is the next town (where xx is the same two digits in each case).

David

Spider-101 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 17, 2004 Posts: 18

Thanks All,

I just thought it would be quicker/easier to use postcodes than town/street addresses. soetimeswhen I have used "built-in" satnavs in other peoples cars to find an address I've had a problem when the "town" name I've been given doesn't match the town name in the Sat Nav, i.e people give a district or area name (resumably a bit like people who live in Batersea in London giving their address as 'South Chelsea' Smile

". A postcode would be less ambiguous.

Baldlygo · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:40 pm Post subject:

Niels Thomsen's ukpostcode works brilliantly on my TT3 - hasn't let me down yet on several journeys.
....but then you havn't got TT..... ;) Sad

UKHABU · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:46 pm Post subject:

Well due to previous experience writing software based on Postcodes I have retained this anorak like knowledge Laughing

On average a Full postcode (ie inward and outward codes) is shared by 14.7 houses. It depends on the density of the area - if you are talking about a town/city then that is about right (usually one side of a Street/Road) - if you are talking about out in the sticks it may well be just one individual property.

Large users of post will have their own unique postcode whereever they are - think of the DVLA.

My home postcode is NR34 9RZ the outward code is (NR34) and the inward code is (9RZ) and that is shared with about 30 houses.

5 digit code : NR34 9 plus the street name and number will (depending on what software we are using) narrow it down to at least half the street.
As I understand it there are basically only two sources of street mapping :
Navteq and TeleAtlas - Navteq has a better database regarding street numbers.
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Spider-101 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 17, 2004 Posts: 18

Tim Buxton · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 3:17 pm Post subject:

Yes, although some of the postcode data might not be correct, just as some of the maps are not correct.
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Tim

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