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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

#221

Post by jillesvangurp »

juliansimioni wrote: post #44
maxerickson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exclusively. They probably dump OpenAddresses data (or something similar) into their geocoder. https://openaddresses.io/

Hi, founder of Geocode Earth ( https://geocode.earth ), another geocoding service that _does_ use OpenAddresses and only other open data sets. Mapbox purchases data from, I believe, TomTom, and other proprietary sources. That's why they have cheap(er) pricing if you want to get results without the legal ability to store them, and much more expensive pricing if you do want to store it. I'm sure negotiating that arrang…

A friend of mine runs opencage, which is a geocoder based on open streetmaps and a few other data sets. They got a lot more business when Google raised their prices a while back. Anyway, go give them some love if you need a geocoder because they are an awesome small company with a great service. Their freemium layer is also pretty generous.

Nominatim is the defactor open streetmaps geocoder but its weakness is that it relies on only that; so it is only as good as OSM is.

Geocoding is a surprisingly hard problem to solve with and without open data. Picking apart text strings into unambiguous addresses is just super hard with all the conventions for this around the world. One area open streetmaps is still inconsistent is house numbers and postal codes. Getting solid open data for that is just hard in some places.

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

#222

Post by thrower123 »

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 rural areas of the US, there are some places where OSM data is hilariously bad. At one point they imported a whole bunch of TIGER data that wasn't cleaned up properly, and it's still showing roads that don't exist a decade later.

It's a good way to tell if a mapping service is using their own data or just ripping off OSM though.

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

#223

Post by dawnerd »

durkie wrote: post #106
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)

someone was kind enough to upload their recent (oct 2020) build of OSM vector tiles to the internet archive: https://archive.org/details/osm-vector-mbtiles

You nailed it wow. Didn’t even think to check there.

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

#224

Post by [deleted] »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #190
s0rce wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[deleted]

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

#225

Post by csharptwdec19 »

When I worked in HFC/Fiber Design (and automation via code), we tried looking into OSM as a replacement for our workflows that used google earth and hack on top of hack (Google earth kept removing parts of the API that were useful for automation/semi-automation, at least I got to learn lots about P/Invoke I guess?)

Back then, it unfortunately wasn't usable for us, but I kept the research bits aside just in case when I left the job in 2013.

When I spoke with someone still at that company a few months ago, I learned that over the years OSM had evolved/matured enough that they were using it far more than google earth.

I miss GIS/Mapping. It's great to see it is still a collaborative community. :)

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

#226

Post by maxerickson »

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.

Have you tried USGS topo maps?

I guess the paper will be out of date, I'm not sure what the new electronic ones do for local and regional trails (I think they would print okay, they just aren't distributed directly on paper).

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

#227

Post by jokteur »

habi wrote: post #210
Faaak wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

swisstopo is really good, but as far as i know, sadly, only some data is open, and not all of it

There's a bit of discussion in `osm_ch` that from March on, the SwissTopo data will be free OpenGovernmentData: https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/swisstopo/free-geodata.htm... The debate is what 'free' means :)

Oh, this is very interesting. Thank you for the link.

I think some of the questions about what 'free' of charge mean are answered below in the frequently asked questions section.

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

#228

Post by jacobr »

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…

Volvo cars will notify other Volvos about slippery roads and other road hazards, and there’s work to share this data with other car manufacturers as well. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/volvo-european-data-task-...

Is there something like an Open Routing project where this dynamic data would make more sense than in OSM?

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

#229

Post by dualthro »

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…

For volcanoes, what do you mean guides lose potential clients because of this? Like their maps aren't as good as other guides and so people don't hire them? I'm a bit confused.

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

#230

Post by jakecopp »

lindner wrote: post #213
jakecopp wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Wrong answer..

That comment doesn't provide any value.

> You want to make it such that facts added by anyone can be easily imported with a simple opt-in.

OpenStreetMap is much larger than just me or one company.

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

Imports are not an easy problem - how do you deal with conflicts? How to verify which data is more accurate?

Imports are supported, and there is a detailed process for them to make sure OpenStreetMap stays well maintained: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines

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