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How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

andrewheiss.com

21–30 of 102 posts

Re: How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

#21

Why is there such a movement for making maps with R? The python ecosystem has more and better packages for making maps already. Notwithstanding that there are indeed some nice results, this new R toolchain movement towards maps feels like a waste of open source energy to me.

As someone proficient with R and Python, anything data viz-wise is substantially easier to do in R/ggplot2, particularly something complicated like this post. Most of the R packages in this post aren't that new either.

My same experience, I have built fairly big projects with Python and I like it for general tasks but whenever I have something data analytics/visualization related I find myself reaching for R. There is so much functionality built into the language that just makes me so efficient.

Re: How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

#22
post #13
post #8

Vaguely related, a few years ago I made a map of "how to drive from SF to NYC while passing through the minimum number of Republican-voting counties": https://github.com/louispotok/blue-road-trip

that route follows an ancient coastline - https://starkeycomics.com/2021/06/11/how-a-coastline-100-mil...

"How a coastline 100 million years ago influences modern election results in Alabama"

With some maps of Cretaceous sediments, fertile Black Belt Prairie soil, farm size 1997, slave population 1860, black population 2010, and Election Results.

A little bit about the soils from a different link:

"The Black Belt is the only region in Alabama with extensive regions of alkaline soils (soil pH> 7.0). Early settlers discovered these clayey soils held more nutrients and were generally more productive than the sandier Coastal Plain soils. For this reason, many of the large, antebellum cotton plantations were located in the Black Belt region of Alabama and Mississippi. Black Belt soil color is dark because of the humus, or decomposed organic matter, that often coats the clay particles. However, severe erosion due to intensive farming practices removed much of the dark, rich topsoil."

https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/healthy-soils/alabama-soils...

Re: How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

#23
post #8

Vaguely related, a few years ago I made a map of "how to drive from SF to NYC while passing through the minimum number of Republican-voting counties": https://github.com/louispotok/blue-road-trip

I can't believe how even a topic about open maps API gets turned into politics. And then gets voted to the top. What was HN saying about Twitter's algorithm? Something about polarization, divisiveness, outrage, etc? It's not algorithms, it's you. You're making online discussion miserable for everybody.

Re: How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

#26
post #8

Vaguely related, a few years ago I made a map of "how to drive from SF to NYC while passing through the minimum number of Republican-voting counties": https://github.com/louispotok/blue-road-trip

I can't believe how even a topic about open maps API gets turned into politics. And then gets voted to the top. What was HN saying about Twitter's algorithm? Something about polarization, divisiveness, outrage, etc? It's not algorithms, it's you. You're making online discussion miserable for everybody.

This is objectively useful: Now we can build an underground railroad for getting LGBT folks out of Florida and similar states.

Re: How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't believe how even a topic about open maps API gets turned into politics. And then gets voted to the top. What was HN saying about Twitter's algorithm? Something about polarization, divisiveness, outrage, etc? It's not algorithms, it's you. You're making online discussion miserable for everybody.

This is objectively useful: Now we can build an underground railroad for getting LGBT folks out of Florida and similar states.

So edgy that you’re only posting it using a throwaway account. Stop trolling.

Re: How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is objectively useful: Now we can build an underground railroad for getting LGBT folks out of Florida and similar states.

So edgy that you’re only posting it using a throwaway account. Stop trolling.

Is this edgy? I work in the gov and last week drafted a policy to inform and quickly relocate staff in such states based on their public-facing potential for harm. Quite a lot of our staff is in Florida right now, and legislation continues to roll through.. It's quite real to me. Also I just cycle through throwaway accounts because when I attached my comments to a username I began to self-censor how I speak. The lack of a username helps me think.

Re: How to make fancy road trip maps with R and OpenStreetMap

#29

Why is there such a movement for making maps with R? The python ecosystem has more and better packages for making maps already. Notwithstanding that there are indeed some nice results, this new R toolchain movement towards maps feels like a waste of open source energy to me.

There are a lot of R users and it's a nice language you should try it sometimes.
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