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

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

#171

Post by theomega »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #55
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 love MapOut (iOS only). It's an outdoor-focused mapping app with easy offline downloads and really beautiful cartography.

MapOut is such a beautiful app, I'm using it very often. If you are doing any outdoor sports or even just wanting to get to know your surrounding, I heavily recommend MapOut on iOS. Worth every euro. The developers are also very responsive in case you have any questions.

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

#172

Post by roelschroeven »

Loic wrote: post #149
roelschroeven wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing is perfect, not even official paper maps. I remember a hike we did on holiday in the Drôme department of France when I was a little kid, long before OSM or Google Maps or even Microsoft's Terraserver. Must have been somewhere in the mid to late 80's, I think. We did have a paper map though, and I think it was an official topographic map. We started in one valley and the plan was to hike up the ridge and then…

For people not knowing it: https://opentopomap.org OpenStreetMap with the traditional topographic view. But I was not able to find where you wanted to hike to see the Tour de France.

There's an OpenTopoMap too, at least on Android. I think it's amazing how much information on the world around us we can now get with almost no effort and cost.

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

#173

Post by walrus01 »

npteljes wrote: post #53
dawnerd wrote: post #46

Now if only there was a sensible way to self-host OSM data. From what I've found you either have to build a dedicated server to continuously building the tiles (which takes a ton of storage and processing power) or pay for it at an insane monthly price. I wish OSM would directly make their tiles available to mirror. (Maybe they do, but I haven't found it yet)

I just looked it up and apparently, all tiles would take up 54 TB[0], and even just the important tiles are around 1TB. I now understand why just downloading them isn't an option. [0] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_disk_usage

It specifically says: OSM does NOT pre-render every tile. Pre-rendering all tiles would use around 54 TB of storage

that 54TB figure is only if you pre-render into raster every zoom level of every tile for the whole world. a more typical self hosted openstreetmap renders the tiles on demand as you scroll or move the map.

Disk space usage is MUCH less, such that my test/development setup fits well on a virtual machine with 300GB of disk space on a 12TB hard drive that cost $145. By this measurement I believe it's using just under 4 dollars of disk space, 8 dollars if you count its duplicate where it gets backed up to.

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

#174

Post by friseurtermin »

guntars wrote: post #14

Lyft has access to some pretty good data on where the roads actually are and if there are any closures. Looks like they are already contributing back, which is awesome. Something I've never heard being done, but could be very helpful for cities, is tracking the bumpiness of roads as a metric for road quality. The city could have near real time access to information on where the potholes are. I'd think they'd be willi…

We're working on a project in that direction [0].

The basic idea of the app is that cyclist record their bike rides through the city and accelerometer data is used to report dangerous situations (e.g. a car crossing a cycle lane without regards for the cyclists). It turns out that this accelerometer data can also be used to check the cycle path quality. Some cities respond well to the idea while others just ignore the problem

[0]: https://www.mcc.tu-berlin.de/menue/forschung/projekte/simra/...

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

#175

Post by matkoniecz »

blendergeek wrote: post #148
qwertay wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia shows that average people are pretty good at assembling data. The problem is drive by contributors are not very good at developing software. Wikipedia is super basic software wise while GIS and everything around it is extremely complex. The data in OSM is pretty good but there are no apps for it that are actually good other than leaflet JS for embedding on sites. Have to remember that a maps app is way more…

> Have to remember that a maps app is way more than just data. Agreed. > Its efficient routing, This is a hard one especially for long routes when calculated on a phone rather than on a server. > its good text to speach, Ummmm. Text-to-speech is almost always provided by the OS rather than the app. > its pulling in data from multiple sources like the gps location of the bus I'm waiting for There are surprisingly good…

> "entire road that just has no name" should be mapped differently

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:noname (used for example by StreetComplete that I really recommend if someone has Android, wants to contribute and is not interesting in learning to use a complicated editor).

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

#176

Post by habi »

izacus wrote: post #160
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps has been OpenStreetMap for years.

No, Apple is USING OpenStreetMap which is a different thing - they pulled the data but haven't contributed much back as they're building their own proprietary backend.

Apple does contribute to OSM quite a bit, see around 4:00 in https://2020.stateofthemap.org/sessions/SPRQVZ/ for details of corporate contributions: "Apple is currently doing the most work on the map".

Here is the base repository of their contributions on GitHub: https://github.com/osmlab/appledata

And if I see this correctly, the #adt hashtag (for Apple Data Team) contains already +100000 changesets for this year alone: https://osmcha.org/?filters=%7B%22comment%22%3A%5B%7B%22labe...

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

#177

Post by matkoniecz »

konjin wrote: post #122
HotVector wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think Google was the "good guy" by providing so many resources for free, but I've realized how they've exploited their market dominance by essentially manipulating the masses with their ad service. We need to move away from conglomerates and start using software that doesn't sell your soul to the devil.

You need to start paying for software because if you don't then you're the product. Payment might include leasing out your infrastructure to the project until cryptos become viable for something other than ponzi schemes.

Are you aware of software developed as a hobby or as part of the actual product (without making the user a product) or as a limited version demonstrating full product?

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

#178

Post by darkfirefly »

jokteur wrote: post #168
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…

In my country, there is an amazing government mandated service called Swiss Topo ( https://map.geo.admin.ch ), which can be accessed freely. Here are some features: - detailed maps from 1:10,000 to 1:1,000,000 - hiking routes which are actively maintained. You can create your own hiking routes, and it will estimate the time that it will take to complete them. - historical data, like historical maps since 1864 and aer…

NSW, Aus offers SIX Maps: https://six.maps.nsw.gov.au (this offers very good imagery of the NSW areas, better than google)

That's the easy-to-use-maps.

There's also the aus-wide https://nationalmap.gov.au where you get basic satellite maps with the option to add various datasets and even daily maps from Landsat 2A

There's also ELVIS foundation spatial data https://elevation.fsdf.org.au

There's don't really cover hiking trails that much, etc. There's more general purpose mapping applications.

It's also possible to find various topographic maps in static form somewhere on the government sites.

Councils are the ones that provide the hiking trails, etc. so it depends on the locality. The Northern Beaches council for example provides an interactive trails map, but most have static maps.

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

#179

Post by matkoniecz »

Vinnl wrote: post #152
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #12

On the other hand, I wonder if OSM's accuracy in Europe has taken a hit in the last year. The lockdowns have led to a wave of bankruptcies of restaurants and fitness centers in several countries, but because mappers are forced to stay home and aren't circulating in the city doing their business, they aren't noticing so much what has changed and removing those POIs from the map. Also, the extremely strict lockdowns in…

Interestingly with almost nothing to do but walks around the city, Covid is the first time I started actively contributing to OSM. Although StreetComplete [1] definitely helped there, albeit just as a gateway for actually updated POIs, which still required the web interface. [1] https://github.com/westnordost/StreetComplete/

> gateway for actually updated POIs, which still required the web interface

Vespucci app can be used to do it directly on phone.

Vespucci vs StreetComplete are quite interesting, in many aspects they are complete opposites.

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

#180

Post by leokennis »

s0rce wrote: post #92
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…

I often notice when OSM is wrong/missing data while hiking and I'll record a trace and update when I get back home. I enjoy contributing but I wish there was a bit more of a community aspect to it (or maybe I simply haven't found that). In some areas the US government agency maps are hilariously out of date or simply completely wrong so OSM is great to able to simply fix it after visiting.

For hiking, what I also like to do is add small and "useless" features to the map, that can help navigation.

Like, if there is a small open spot or some minor structure in the middle of the woods, I will add it. If someone is walking and not sure if they are still on the right track, they can look around, see the open spot, see the open spot on OSM, and know that they are indeed at that place.

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