What3Words

Another walking club I belong to have on a recent walk, had an incident when it was necessary to make a 999 call to the emergency services. The initial phone conversation exposed a difficulty in defining locations in open country.

The leader was carrying a map and gave the emergency services a six-figure grid reference However, OS maps seemed not to be readily available to the call handler. The map proved of use only in terms of identifying the nearest road and village. What the call handlers now ideally wish to know is the “What3Words” location.

What3Words is an App. that can be downloaded free of charge onto any smart phone. When you open the App. it identifies the location of your phone and gives you three, seemingly random, words. These three words define a 3-metre square and every square on the earth has a unique three words.

Warning Each 3-metre square is surrounded by 8 touching squares. If someone close by records a different completely unrelated What3Words, this is not a system error; it simply indicates that their phone is in one of the eight adjacent squares and anyone of the references would give the emergency service almost the exact location.

Using the App. is the quickest way to get emergency help when difficult to find locations, both in open country and in congested areas such as a long unlit street or a large campus.

Whilst this is vitally important in an emergency, it is very useful for a walking group in other ways. For example, some of us recall a walk starting at Foxton Locks when the leader specified “Meet in the car park” not appreciating there are two distinct car parks some considerable distance apart. This ended with walkers assembling in both car parks. The inclusion of the “What3Words” would avoid that.

Taking it further, the code can be entered into a i-phone and can be linked into such as google maps which would give a route from where you are now to reach the location.

You will find more and more What3Words being used by Ramblers to identify the location of the start of a walk.

I would strongly recommend all members who use smart phones, to download this App. and to check that you know how it works.