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

211–220 of 252 posts

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

#211

Post by habi »

m-p-3 wrote: post #89
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…

It gave my old Garmin GPS a new life, where Garmin stopped providing updated data. A packaged map file with OSM data made it useful again. For those in a similar situation, I use this https://www.openmapchest.org/maps/canada/

For those in a similar situation which want this for Europe, too, use http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl, which has worldwide coverage.

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

#212

Post by alistairSH »

dopidop wrote: post #206
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…

I know that I dearly miss the French IGN. It’s close to impossible to find decent paper map for hiking in the US.

I've found the Nat Geo waterproof maps to be quite good. Between the "Trails Illustrated" fold-up maps and the "Topographic Trail Guides", the east coast is pretty well covered.

https://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps

I also use Gaia GPS as a planning tool. Fiddle with routes on the laptop, then load the relevant map squares on the phone for offline use. It has the NatGeo maps, plus several other sources, available for overlay. With this, my NatGeo paper maps largely become backups.

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

#213

Post by lindner »

jakecopp wrote: post #134
lindner wrote: post #77

One thing that someone might consider is working with Data Portability laws to allow for export of user contributed data to corporate map platforms. I'd like to add my Google Maps contributions to OSM I'm a Level 7 local guide there and was an active user of MapMaker back in the day..

Which sort of contributions would you like to copy from Google Maps to OSM? If you personally surveyed these places you can go to OpenStreetMap.org, sign in and then you can add your changes - OSM may already have the info so a straight import wouldn't be possible. Make sure not to copy any of Google's details to OSM that you didn't personally survey as that would violate copyright. Please reach out to me if you'd li…

Wrong answer.. This effort does not scale. You want to make it such that facts added by anyone can be easily imported with a simple opt-in.

GDPR data portability could be expanded to include defined formats for export so that import can be done in an automated fashion.

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

#217

Post by berkes »

moooo99 wrote: post #186
berkes wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 applica…

Then the conclusion would be "Open Source is unfitted as model to build end-user software for the average consumer".

Which I still disagree with, but that is a different discussion. It has nothing to do with Open Source being unfit as model for sofware around OSM or GIS.

Edit: to be clear: Bing Maps, Apple Maps, Facebook, WhatsApp are just some of the (average) consumer facing products that use OSM for their data. Some solely use OSM as data, others enrich and/or use it to mix with other sources. This to show examples of how OSM data is used in and by apps that you probably use. But where the data is Open Source, the app using it, is not.

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

#218

Post by elgaard »

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…

There have been projects like that.

The problem is that potholes do not exists because cities do not know where they are. They exist because of lack of resources or priorities.

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

#219

Post by Harvesterify »

matkoniecz wrote: post #179
Vinnl wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Also, OSM Go![1] allows you to edit/delete any object on the map :)

[1] Available as PWA and Android app: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Osm_Go!

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

#220

Post by elgaard »

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…

I do not think so. Well restaurant may be a little behind.

I try to maintain all restaurants etc in Denmark by comparing OSM POIs to public health inspection reports. see: https://digitalfrihed.dk/restaurants/all.html

So today there are 243 restaurants, cafes and fast food places in OSM that do not have a valid inspection report (the pink ones on my map). I think that many are just closed temporarily because of Covid and therefore have not been inspected and the inspection report just timed out. Probably some that have an inspection report will never open again, but I will soon find out. Many of them are cafeterias for employees in larger companies and will likely open again.

Many restaurants are open for takeaway, also many that did not do takeaway before the lockdown.

I have lately been doing speedlimits, mostly from Mapillary. But I have also done some surveying on bicycle.

Post reply on HN