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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

#181

Post by leokennis »

lqet wrote: post #69
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…

While I agree that OSM is great and highly accurate, I would be careful using it in remote locations where your life may depend on a correct trail. It is very easy to edit OSM (changes are propagated into map tiles after a few minutes), and malicious intent is not immediately spotted. The latter is especially true in remote locations.

I mean...sure, never blindly trust anything. But is there any proof of "malicious intent" in OSM mapping, having lead to actual issues?

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

#182

Post by leokennis »

ashtonbaker wrote: post #38
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 think Gaia GPS has a free tier? The base map is OSM. I've seen changes that I've made in OSM pulled in within a couple of days. I've gotten a lot of use out of my subscription. I can't speak as much to the location searching capability.

Love Gaia GPS as well. Location search is hit and miss, but once you're on a trail, it's a flawless app.

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

#183

Post by dvdkon »

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…

Here the national land survey bureau (ČÚZK, rough translation) maintains maps in a similar scale to the one you posted. But they were opened only recently (they used to be for sale for pretty high prices) and the bureau haven't built a compelling web interface over them. The current UI [1] is basically just an ArcGIS frontend, with no automatic layer choosing based on zoom level and quite slow at that.

Planning maps are usually unfortunately only held by the responsible subjects (towns and larger administrative blocks), so there's no one map or one format. Most of these maps are at least published in some viewable capacity, though, from what I can tell.

[1]: https://ags.cuzk.cz/geoprohlizec/

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

#184

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#185

Post by wildfire »

darkfirefly wrote: post #178
jokteur wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hiki…

Wow - very interesting.

Btw: the URL for Six maps is: https://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/

Not sure if it was changed but it took me a few tries to find the right permutation

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

#186

Post by moooo99 »

berkes wrote: post #157
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…

Graphhopper is an excellent open source routing engine. I'm not sure if you are really saying that Open Source is unfit for GIS. Because there is a lot of proof it is a perfectly suited model for GIS.

Absolutely true, Graphhopper is amazing.

But I completely agree with the point of the original comment. Open Source software often comes with questionable usability and is often not well fitted to be used by the average consumer. While lots of open source applications offer the same, if not more, features than their commercial counterparts, it often feels like you need a special degree to use a simple android application or desktop app.

Without a good and usable, cross platform application to use with OSM, OSM will never be something used by the average consumer.

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

#187

Post by arethuza »

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.

That's pretty good - almost as good as OS 1:25,000 maps for landforms and actually better for showing paths.

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

#188

Post by Brakenshire »

The problem I have with OpenStreetMap is the license, it seems you can use an OSM derived base map and then layer anything else on top without problems, but you cannot process the data or mix in proprietary data without releasing the algorithm or the final dataset. So any competitive advantage derived from processing the data has to be immediately made open.

So you see a lot of use of OSM as a base map, but very little use as a mapping database for commercial applications. I see why they did this, to prevent companies taking their data to bootstrap a closed competitor, but the consequence is that the data is locked in and is getting much less use than you’d hope as a database.

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

#189

Post by RicoElectrico »

Brakenshire wrote: post #188

The problem I have with OpenStreetMap is the license, it seems you can use an OSM derived base map and then layer anything else on top without problems, but you cannot process the data or mix in proprietary data without releasing the algorithm or the final dataset. So any competitive advantage derived from processing the data has to be immediately made open. So you see a lot of use of OSM as a base map, but very litt…

Can you elaborate where license would be a problem?

Keep in mind this:

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Community_Guidel...

Which eases the issue a little bit. For instance, MS uses OSM buildings for Bing Maps. Or Apple uses OSM for road data in selected countries (Ukraine?)

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

#190

Post by ClumsyPilot »

s0rce wrote: post #93
ghaff wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSM isn't perfect--especially on trails that aren't official in any way. (Although there are some totally informal trails literally out my door that are far better than you could reasonably expect. And the missing sections are probably on private land which is one reason I haven't filled them in.) But Google seems to have pretty much zero interest in mapping even popular official trails in many cases.

I'm often hesitant about mapping the unofficial trails, particularly the ones you aren't supposed to use. There are many around the SF bay area, some are simply non-maintained non-system trails, while others are illegal mtb paths off the allowed trail network. Some of them are so well traveled in areas with minimal erosion that they are almost as good as maintained trails, although often less well graded.

In thr Uk, I believ, paths 'legalise' themselves - once a path is established, if used continously it will become a public right of way.

Then you cant close it or obstruct it even if you are the land owner

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