Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

eng.lyft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 252 posts

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#111

Post by at_a_remove »

I have been considering looking at OSM as "yet another data source" for my maps, but overall I run into the highly abstract issue of comparison: how do I know that two segments (one from say OSM, one from perhaps the county) reference the same stretch of street for comparison?

Even the slightest nudge of a single coordinate point on the line would mean that they were not geometrically identical, so I would not know to compare their attributes. Names are almost laughably bad for this purpose, for having multiple forms ("N SECOND ST" vs "NORTH 2ND STREET") and for being terrifying vague (so many, many Main Streets). Worse yet, a given segment might be split at a point not an intersection (speed change occurs here, municipality change, directionality change, road type change, etc) so I cannot even rely on those. And it is entirely possible for different maps to include a driveway, splitting a street at that point, while another does not, leaving it continuous.

Large-scale automated comparison of this kind of thing is challenging.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#112

Post by [deleted] »

dharmab wrote: post #6
Ayesh wrote: post #4

Good that OSM is accurate in cities as well, because in hiking, skiing, or even some ferry routes, OSM simply wins because that's often the only mapping provider to even have _any_ data. Some of my first hand experiences: - French GR-20 routes. Google maps are laughably empty, while OSM has you covered with almost the same information as the hiking maps you can buy on the trail. - Anapurna - similar to GR-20 situatio…

The other great mapping resource is CalTopo ( https://caltopo.com ). Outside did an article on how CalTopo is used by people who work and play outside: https://www.outsideonline.com/2229756/your-navigation-outdat...

[deleted]

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#113

Post by maxerickson »

matkoniecz wrote: post #103
randoramax wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried fixing the map yourself? It's easy, just like Wikipedia.

As an OSM mapper I would not say that debugging and fixing address issue is easy...

It's maybe a little snarky, but the most common issue is relatively straightforward to fix, just add the missing address.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#114

Post by galimaufry »

at_a_remove wrote: post #111

I have been considering looking at OSM as "yet another data source" for my maps, but overall I run into the highly abstract issue of comparison: how do I know that two segments (one from say OSM, one from perhaps the county) reference the same stretch of street for comparison? Even the slightest nudge of a single coordinate point on the line would mean that they were not geometrically identical, so I would not know t…

> Names are almost laughably bad for this purpose, for having multiple forms ("N SECOND ST" vs "NORTH 2ND STREET") and for being terrifying vague (so many, many Main Streets).

libpostal (open source, open data location parser) might help with this. Between using it to parse the name, and supplementing this with the city name (using reverse geocode with imprecise coordinates), you might be able to get something useful.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#115

Post by KingOfCoders »

mongol wrote: post #88
CivBase wrote: post #26

I've been looking to replace Google Maps with OSM on my smartphone. OSM itself is great, but I've been having a harder time finding a good app to use it with. Is anyone familiar with a good option? I mostly use a maps app for location searches and real-time GPS navigation, but offline maps and location sharing are nice-to-have features. I've been using OsmAnd and it's okay. The interface is pretty good. It supports o…

I like Locus maps a lot. The UI is a little busy but once you get used to it you appreciate it because it really is a work of love.

We used Locus to hike through Norway.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#116

Post by pomian »

reaperducer wrote: post #60
thitcanh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an easy way to contribute from my phone? If I could just turn the GPS on and let it track my path I’d be able to contribute all of my random hikes that might not be on OSM.

Interesting thought. I have GPS traces for a number of Amtrak routes across America. I wonder if those would be useful.

Why not? It is always informative to have more information. Especially if you know ahead of time, what side of the train to be on, to see more interesting things. Also having information on one map program is great. Why switch apps? Especially since OSM is so privacy friendly.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#117

Post by kccqzy »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #79
petre wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook and MS have been lately contributing a lot to OSM, so what you see on Apple Maps might very well be OSM data. https://joemorrison.medium.com/openstreetmap-is-having-a-mom...

Apple Maps has been OpenStreetMap for years.

Apple's old map was OpenStreetMap plus other sources but its new ones are proprietary. But its new ones are only available in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#118

Post by pomian »

einpoklum wrote: post #42
CivBase wrote: post #26

I've been looking to replace Google Maps with OSM on my smartphone. OSM itself is great, but I've been having a harder time finding a good app to use it with. Is anyone familiar with a good option? I mostly use a maps app for location searches and real-time GPS navigation, but offline maps and location sharing are nice-to-have features. I've been using OsmAnd and it's okay. The interface is pretty good. It supports o…

I'm using an app called Maps.Me, which seems to be OSM-based. It's kind of commercialized, which I don't like, but it's usable. I'd be interested in something more FOSSy, myself.

I've been using Maps, from fdroid, also. It is very good, quick, and you can choose tracking on and off, etc. It states under info, that it is based on maps.me, version that's working is 9.1.8-8.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#119

Post by chihuahua »

randoramax wrote: post #15
exabrial wrote: post #10

Except my street. No matter how many times I email Lyft support, it always sends them the wrong place. Most Lyft drivers don't read the directions on pickup either explaining the problem. /sigh #FirstWorldProblems

Have you tried fixing the map yourself? It's easy, just like Wikipedia.

That is a nice feature of OSM, and I've done this a few times.

But I wonder if there is any propagation delay from OSM to Lyft. When I made some changes to OSM data, I expected the Strava app to pick up the changes for route creation, but they don't receive updates constantly. Instead, it took several months until the changes took effect on Strava.

Re: OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

#120

Post by juliansimioni »

at_a_remove wrote: post #111

I have been considering looking at OSM as "yet another data source" for my maps, but overall I run into the highly abstract issue of comparison: how do I know that two segments (one from say OSM, one from perhaps the county) reference the same stretch of street for comparison? Even the slightest nudge of a single coordinate point on the line would mean that they were not geometrically identical, so I would not know t…

One of the under-appreciated advantages OSM has here is that they have a fairly well enforced convention of using fully expanded abbreviations in addresses and street names.

It's _much_ easier for automated comparison to replace `street` with `st` than it is to guess which one of many possible expansions to replace `st` with (is it saint? street? sankt? strasse?).

This isn't foolproof but much of the "authoritative" data out there has no such convention, making analysis much more dangerous.

Post reply on HN