GIS Maps Keep Up With Murfreesboro, TN Growth

Keller Williams Realty in Murfreesboro moved into their beautiful new on Saint Andrews Drive last spring. Recently, I was meeting an out of town client at my office and offered to give him direction. He informed me that he had GPS in his vehicle and would be able to find my office on his own. Shortly before time for his arrival he called my cell phone to get directions. It seemed that his GPS could not locate 450 Saint Andrews Drive. I knew that it was not uncommon for me to attempt to mapquest a new subdivision or street, but never really gave a lot of thought about how this could be a problem.

However, as Rutherford County is continuing to grow at a rapid pace, this is becoming more and more common. And, once we get past the initial inconvenience that this causes, we can see that this has the potential to be a very serious problem. Our office is located on a road that has been in existence for some time now. In fact, it is considered a “major” thoroughfare for many people and is located just off of I24 and Hwy 96. How could a business such as ours not be found on a GPS system. What about an individual home located on a quiet residential street?

I gave my client directions and he was able to navigate to our office with no problem. But what about the individual who is having a medical emergency and cannot physically give directions? What about the child who is calling 911 for help and does not know directions to their home? The list of potential disasters goes on and on. If fire, police, and medical assistance cannot locate an address, are we not potentially in for a disaster in the future?

Well, you can rest assured that the County is already one step ahead of us! It seems that there is new electronic technology called Global Information System that makes this a “problem” that only exists for ourselves, and possibly the local pizza delivery boy. Emergency personnel do not use the same GPS system that we use. They use a system referred to as GIS that actually maps the streets before the streets even exist! These maps are even updated on a daily basis.

Whenever a new development and preliminary plat map is approved, the map is sent to the County Office of Information and Technology. This department then maps the streets and assigns addresses to all of the lots in that plat. Street names are even reviewed by the 911 board to assure no names have been duplicated. Then the addresses are entered into the GIS system and updated daily.

County officials say that there is always a remote chance that an address cannot be located by emergency personnel because it is new, but that would be highly unlikely. Since the County adopted using the GIS system over five years ago, there have only been a few cases where emergency personnel could not locate an address.

I was very relieved to learn that the county’s emergency personnel do not rely on the same GPS system that my client, and local pizza delivery driver, are using. Maybe someday the county will be able to make their GIS system which is updated daily available to the public. But for now, I am glad that I can rest assured that once again, Rutherford County has prepared for the fast paced growth we are experiencing!