weeklyOSM 748

14/11/2024-20/11/2024

Mapping

• Detroit has become the most comprehensively mapped city on Mapillary, achieving 99.8% street coverage through a pioneering street-level imagery (SLI) programme launched in 2018 to address asset management challenges, improving city planning and even addressing census undercounts, demonstrating the transformative power of open SLI platforms in municipal operations.
• Andy Townsend highlighted the issues with using the generic highway=path tag in England and Wales, noting its lack of descriptive clarity and challenges in tagging legal access rights. He suggested using alternative tags such as highway=footway, where applicable, and adding detailed attributes to improve mapping accuracy.
• Requests for comments have been made on these proposals:
  • amenity=travellers_lounge for mapping public seating areas in transport facilities, such as airport lounges or railway station waiting areas.
  • rental:powerbank=yes, to map stations where users can rent portable power banks to charge mobile devices on the go.
  • addr:milestone=* to allow the tagging of street addresses that use the distance from a reference point as part of the address.
  • languages:official=* and languages:preferred=*, to enable the specification of languages for name rendering, for example the targeted display of street names in different languages or scripts in map applications.
  • education=* to tag various educational facilities, programmes, or initiatives, such as schools, training centres, or extracurricular services.
  • railway:train_protection=* to tag specific train protection systems used on railway lines, such as Automatic Train Control, European Train Control System, or similar technologies.
  • shared_green=* to tag pedestrian crossings where vehicles and pedestrians share a green light, helping to identify potentially hazardous situations and improve route planning and safety information.

Mapping campaigns

• Barro examined ► the state of bike parking at daycare centres and schools in Finland’s capital region, highlighting outdated infrastructure and its mismatch with sustainable mobility goals. Using OpenStreetMap data, Barro’s mapping project reveals challenges like inadequate bike racks, underscoring the need for improved planning, and compliance with Helsinki’s 2016 bike parking guidelines.
• As part of the EU Green Diplomacy Weeks across the ASEAN countries, more than 450 Filipino youth participated in a Map for Climate mapathon, using OpenStreetMap to identify climate-vulnerable areas to promote disaster resilience and sustainable planning, showcasing ASEAN-EU cooperation on climate action.

Community

• ASRvwde shared ► their journey from frustration with proprietary mapping systems like Google Maps and TomTom, to embracing the open, editable nature of OSM and its tools, culminating in a deeper commitment to open-source solutions.
• Pieter Vander Vennet detailed the transition of MapComplete’s image hosting from Imgur to Panoramax, citing changes to Imgur’s terms of use and functionality, while encouraging the wider adoption of Panoramax for OpenStreetMap projects.
• Christopher Beddow explored the challenges of maintaining up-to-date maps in a rapidly changing world and examined how digital tools, sensors and crowdsourced data such as OpenStreetMap aim to synchronise geospatial data with reality. While OSM provides near real-time updates, the delivery of maps often lags due to the need for error correction and cost efficiency. Advanced tools such as AI, sensors, and augmented reality promise better mapping, but the Sisyphean task of creating a perfectly dynamic map highlights the limits of technology and human effort. Ultimately, mapping validates our ever-changing world, bridging subjective experience with objective geospatial records.
• The Trufi Association congratulated the Duitama Mapping Stars, a group of 12 Colombian high school students from Salesano College, who received volunteer certificates for their mapping contributions under the guidance of teacher Leonardo Gutiérrez and principal Pd. Peña.

Imports

• spalinger wrote a guide outlining a detailed process for importing Swiss GWR address data into OpenStreetMap using JOSM, emphasising preparation, merging, and validation to improve data accuracy and consistency, while identifying areas for further improvement.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• The OSMF Board’s 2024 report highlighted achievements including improved governance, support for global and regional State of the Map conferences, enhanced onboarding processes, and progress on relocating the organisation into the European Union. Diversity milestones were also celebrated, with the Board having its highest female representation yet.

Events

• Save the date for the first monthly online Panoramax meeting, in English, on Monday 25 November at 16:00 UTC.

Education

• Ray Berger’s guide explains how to add a brand preset to OpenStreetMap using the Name Suggestion Index, aiming to simplify a process that even experienced mappers and developers can find confusing.

OSM research

• HeiGIT has released a global dataset of road surface types (paved versus unpaved), filling the 67% gap in OpenStreetMap road surface data. Developed using geo-AI and funded by the Klaus Tschira Foundation, this dataset improves road safety, economic development, and environmental planning by optimising emergency routes and supply chains, particularly in under-mapped regions.

Maps

• ^[1] Prasanna Venkadesh has updated StreetLightsMap to use Protomaps’ PMTiles vector format as its base map, replacing the standard OpenStreetMap raster tiles and reducing the load on OSM’s tile servers thanks to Protomaps’ free non-commercial API access.
• OpenStreetMap’s new dark mode has updated the user interface to match the user’s system settings, but many users have criticised the dimming effect on map tiles for reducing contrast and usability, particularly in terms of accessibility. The developers acknowledged the concerns and mentioned future plans for improvement, including possible vector tile updates, while noting the limitations of the current infrastructure.

OSM in action

• There are two Geoguessr-like games based on Panoramax images available, PANOGUESSR and PanoramaxGuessr.

Software

• MapMatrix showcased a React-based application built by Claude AI that enables synchronised multi-view map comparisons with features such as MapLibre integration, custom layers, and configurable layouts.
• Emilio Mariscal has developed ChatMap, a simple tool for creating maps from WhatsApp chats, designed to assist emergency services and humanitarian organisations by converting shared locations into actionable maps during disasters and emergencies. Users can export chat data as a ZIP file and upload it to ChatMap to visualise locations, with potential applications beyond crisis response.
• The osmapiR v0.2.2 update improved compatibility with the httr2 library, enhanced documentation for OpenStreetMap server changes, introduced new query parameters for changesets, and resolved bugs related to time-based queries, further streamlining OpenStreetMap data management in R.
• Traili Map is a user-friendly route planner for bike touring, focused on utilising existing bike trails and infrastructure, primarily sourced from OpenStreetMap. It allows users to explore and plan routes based on official bike trails, currently covering Europe, with North America and other regions planned soon. The app employs Graphhopper for fast route calculations and uses Next.js and .NET for its web interface, with plans to transition to self-hosted map tiles for greater flexibility.

Programming

• Mark Litwintschik reviewed OpenStreetMap’s move to hosting Mapbox Vector Tiles (MVT), which allow users to customise map styles and extract data more flexibly than static raster tiles. Mark provided a step-by-step guide to visualising these tiles using tools such as QGIS and Jupyter Notebook, discussed hardware and software setups, and highlighted how vector tiles can improve the clarity and usability of mapping applications.
• Overpass.jl is a Julia package that provides a lightweight wrapper for the Overpass API, allowing users to perform spatial queries, parse results flexibly, and customise API endpoints with minimal dependencies.
• Greg Smith explored the process of importing the global OpenStreetMap database into PostgreSQL in less than four hours using tweaked settings, advanced hardware, and updates in PostgreSQL and osm2pgsql. Improvements in GIST index building, osm2pgsql’s index compression techniques, and state-of-the-art SSDs significantly improved performance, demonstrating how advances in database and hardware technologies are streamlining the handling of massive geospatial data.

Releases

• OsmAnd Android 4.9 introduced new features such as route recording with speed analysis, improvements to the GPX viewer, and search capabilities, the ability to add bookmarks while navigating, better map rendering performance, and updated public transport tools, improving both the user experience and the versatility of the application.
• A new beta version of the Panoramax Android app, for taking street-level photos, has been released.
• OsmAPP v1.6.0 has introduced major updates such as driving directions, enhanced search capabilities using the Overpass API, improved public transport and feature panels, multi-language support and innovative sharing tools, as well as a beta climbing app with features tailored for climbers, emphasising usability and open source principles.

Did you know …

• … that BBBike Map Compare lets you view maps from OpenStreetMap, Google, and other sources side by side?
• … that GPSLogger is a lightweight Android app for recording GNSS data in multiple formats (such as GPX, KML, and CSV) and supports uploads to services including Google Drive and Dropbox, all while being optimised for battery efficiency?
• … that you can find local OSM communities in your area by exploring the OSM Teams web app?
• … that Scrambled Hex Maps by Tripgeo is a map-based puzzle game in which you rearrange city hexes to reveal the correct order?

Other “geo” things

• Foursquare announced the release of FSQ Open Source Places, a freely available dataset of over 100 million global points of interest updated monthly under the Apache 2.0 licence. This release is aimed at generating geospatial data by combining AI and human contributions for comprehensive and accurate mapping, and inviting community collaboration to build this foundational layer.
• Simon Poole has expressed mixed reactions to Foursquare’s announcement. While acknowledging the value of releasing the data, he questioned the use of the Apache 2.0 licence, pointing out that it is not a standard licence for data and raises uncertainties about its application and compatibility with other data licences.
• The F24 ferry in Berlin shows that informal, community-driven transport deserves recognition, whether it’s a small ferry in Europe or a minibus in Lagos.
• Google has used ► anonymised GNSS data from millions of Android smartphones to accurately map the ionosphere and thus minimise interference from this layer of the atmosphere, which is particularly beneficial to regions with few monitoring stations. In some cases, the method surpassed existing models in terms of accuracy and provided scientific insights, for example the detection of plasma bubbles and equatorial anomalies.
• Niantic has announced the creation of a Large Geospatial Model (LGM), developed using visual scans collected by Pokémon Go players and users of the Scaniverse app, to build an AI navigation system for physical spaces. This model draws from over 10 million scanned locations globally, capturing unique pedestrian perspectives, and processes geolocated images to create neural networks representing specific locations. With over 150 trillion parameters, the LGM aims to enable precise spatial understanding and has applications in AR, robotics, and logistics. While the scans were gathered under the relevant terms of service, some players have expressed concerns about their use in AI development.
• The Berlin City Traffic Information Centre has published ► a parking space dataset that covers all public street parking within the Berlin S-Bahn ring and selected adjacent areas. They have also launched an interactive ► map providing detailed information for each parking space, including its exact location (street and house number), orientation, parking times, and associated fees with corresponding time slots.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
Strasbourg	Strasbourg 3ème Atelier de cartographie sur OpenStreetMap		2024-11-25
Saint-Étienne	Rencontre Saint-Étienne et sud Loire		2024-11-25
San Jose	South Bay Map Night	✓	2024-11-27
Berlin	OSM-Verkehrswende #64	✓	2024-11-26
Düsseldorf	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)		2024-11-27
Lübeck	148. OSM-Stammtisch Lübeck und Umgebung		2024-11-28
Olomouc	SotM CZ+SK 2024		2024-11-29
Sint-Michiels	LiLi-app mapathon		2024-11-29
ঢাকা	State of the Map Asia		2024-11-29 – 2024-11-30
Salzburg	OSM Treffen Salzburg		2024-12-03
	Missing Maps London: (Online) Mapathon [eng]		2024-12-03
Stuttgart	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen		2024-12-04
	OSM Indoor Meetup		2024-12-04
	LCCWG Monthly Meeting		2024-12-05
Montrouge	Réunion des contributeurs de Montrouge et du Sud de Paris		2024-12-05
	OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2024-12-06
København	OSMmapperCPH		2024-12-08
中正區	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #71		2024-12-09

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by Mannivu, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, TheSwavu, barefootstache, derFred, mcliquid.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.