I am embarking on a project documenting and updating bike lanes throughout Melbourne, and eventually Victoria, in as much detail as possible. This work draws on a range of sources including aerial imagery, street-level imagery, local surveys, other OSM users, and input from councils. I am drawing on global tagging conventions, and other tagging schemes developed specifically for detailed documentation of cycling infrastructure such as here and here.

In the first iteration I will capture the most basic attributes, such as whether a lane exists and if so, what basic category, e.g. exclusive, advisory, shared, separated, etc. If a survey reveals no lane, I mark the way explicitly as cycleway:side=no. Otherwise, the type of lane is captured using cycleway:side=? and cycleway:side:lane=? (side = both/left/right, depending on the way). See this tagging guide for specifics.

This step in itself is quite a large undertaking, and I’m finding even this basic categorisation can be somewhat subjective in cases where cycle lanes haven’t been properly maintained or markings are particularly sparse or unclear. I will post some examples of these edge cases in due course.

Note that where a cycleway tag already exists on a way, but I cannot validate its accuracy, I will not remove the tag. I will only update existing tags if I can confirm the tagging is incorrect, outdated, or could benefit from more detail (such as specifying :side and/or :lane).

Following this, I intend to add additional attributes such as lane width, buffers, separation type, traffic calming, etc. as well as updating the off-road network. This work aims to support better city planning, journey planning and cycle route suggestions across the state.

I have nearly completed the first sweep of City of Melbourne, City of Darebin, and City of Casey and am currently in the process of validating this with these councils.

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This is just an initial review and test of the Every Door mobile OSM editor. If you ever added stores and POIs with either a piece of paper and a camera you know that it is a long pain to add all the information to OSM. Even worse is that all your efforts can end up stale and you have to re-fix all the closed or new stores. Enter Every Door, the perfect tool that makes micro mapping or adding / updating POIs a breeze and not just simple things but adding handicap status, telephones, websites, payment information and other fine details are all there. It also has the easiest and seamless Opening hours editor which with a few taps you have it set quickly.

I went back to fixup and remap some shopping centers and places today and it was a breeze. I am able to quickly remove closed stores, quickly add new stores with the easy iD editor presets search and it does everything to streamline the process and give you just the right fields for the given. Adding the phone number is as easy as dialing it, and website as quickly putting in the url no need to worry about the http prefixes it does it for you. This app makes me want to do more field mapping as it takes out all the tedious parts and gets to the exploring and mapping right away with near instant gratification.

If you haven’t already download and try the app. It is for Android and iOS and is even on the F-Droid app store. So try it out I want more people to know about this as I am glad I found out about the app.

https://every-door.app/

After tinkering a bit but finally successfully processing videos from my Viofo A129 dash cam and uploading them to Mapillary, there is one last thing I wanted to try: using the A129 time lapse mode to be able to collect more imagery before the storage space on my camera runs out…

This does not seem to be possible without recording your GPS breadcrumbs using a separate device, because the location information written into the movie stream by the camera is sparser than the video frames. Using

exiftool -m -p gpx.fmt -ee -ext mp4 -w! %f.gpx time-lapse-movie.MP4

I get 4 trackpoints for a movie that contains about 300 frames.

This could also be a result of limitations in the way exiftool parses the MP4 file, but looking at the relevant documentation section I don’t see a way to tweak this.

What I think I will do instead is:

• Buy a larger micro-SD card (they are getting cheaper all the time)
• Reducing the video quality

In order to be able to capture more of my longer trips. I’m about to make [this drive] and I’ll test it then!

Not sure what this is for exactly, but happy to be adding new restaurants to OpenStreetMaps and to add additional missing content to current entries on OSM.

Earlier today, I reached my 5 millionth edit. It came to my attention about 10 days ago that I was approaching it, because someone on Twitter had celebrated their 15,000th edit, and I went to check mine on neis-one. I then estimated that it would take me 10-14 days to reach it, and I was right.

My friend DeBigC had given me some praise already in his diary some days ago.

Next stop, 10,000,000, I think. Well, not really stop, just a goal.

It’s not that difficult to get that many changes when you’re working on a big project like Irelands #osmIRL_buildings project. We started on Co. Roscommon mid December 2022, and apart from buildings, I’ve already added 1150km of drystone walls. You read that right. Part of that was discovering several field systems of unknown date, but I have documented the use how I tag them on the wiki. I don’t expect many field systems like that to survive in many other countries, it’s just that history is all over the place in Ireland.

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I run a Mapillary supplied BlackVue dashcam uploading my take via the mapillary_tools in two “stabs”. The first is usually same day for road speeds segments below 55kph, the second is up to 2-3 months later. This gives town/village streets and remote road intersections/signs coverage first, for other mappers. I am also taking 1FPS rear left (webcam) and right angle left images (Samsung phone) at less than 40kph for immediate geotag, process/upload. (after manually culling privates)

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Thought it worth posting this.

After much frustration I have come up with what I do regarding amenity=parking and highway=rest_area (plus details) and have been running this way for 6-12 months. This is live data input (my eyeball/camera/recording etc) as I drive through. I think there have been maybe 1200-1400 objects so far!

I have generally adopted a formal vs informal data set. Formal is almost based wholly on site signs and informal on a mix of triggers and interpretations.

This generally only applies to regional places, not so such towns and high population areas.

There are always contentions! I have come across many (other mapper) highway=rest_area objects that are not “my formal”, as I make no allowance for locations that “could be”. Indeed any parking area could be an informal rest area, so are informal ones needed at all? In the end I sometimes use informal=yes or informal=no to clarify.

So looking at the SA and WA govt databases and my limited travels, SA calls everything “rest areas” and their naming system starts “RA”. This is also seen on roads where virtually every stop has a rest area sign at 1km before, followed by a “P” or two. WA calls everything “stopping places” with a plain number designation. It’s almost as if “P” locations in WA are not allowed to be rest areas! There is also a distinct lack of HGV defined “P” in WA where I wonder if trucks actually get stuck in small ones! Of course Qld is quite unfriendly in defining large areas with useful facilities as HGV only, but that’s another story!

The “informals” are basically NHVR Green Dot, Stockpiles/gravel pits and any place that looks like a truck has been parking for a few years! I also map gravel pits that “could be” used for parking.

So onto the process.

MAIN DECISIONS

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b-unicycling has her own wonderful YouTube channel, where she mainly focusses on history aspects of osm, and I recommend all of you reading this to subscribe and understand the infectiousness of her enthusiasm and zeal for mapping.

Recorded a track using opentracker app for a 100km journey through the backroads. Phone was placed as far back on the pillion seat to get maximum view of the sky. No kalmann filter or anything.

The resulting track was very smooth, extremely few jaggies. One particular section of note is at the newly opened elevated highway that is probably at least 10 stories high. Due to the slanted imagery, the traced highway and the gps track differs by about 15 meters. Personally, I won’t bother realigning (although the temptation is very irresistible) - besides somebody else would probably moved it back according to imagery. I learned long ago that trying to get people to check imagery alignment with the provided cm level survey points before editing is a hopeless endeavor.

Still, I am pretty excited with the raw GNSS measurement ability of the phone and intend to set out more survey points just for the hell of it. Waiting for kind, knowledgable people to provide an appimage for the gnssanalysis software since I couldn’t get past installing matlab whatever in its current form.

It might sound like a no big deal or a win to some people, but to me, it’s a big one. I became an advanced mapper on OpenStreetMap in 2022.

I joined the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap as a volunteer mapper in the year 2019. Unfortunately, I was not active until 2020, during the pandemic. I was introduced to HOTOSM after I joined the Youth Mappers FUTA Club (an affiliate of HOTOSM) as an undergraduate.

In December 2021, I saw a tweet about volunteers that mapped for over 100 days in 2021 on OpenStreetMap, and I was compelled to take up the challenge. I improved my participation and moved from a beginner mapper to an intermediate mapper. I could not map for 100 days but I had over 50 days, which made me eligible for the OSM Foundation member.

Though it is a volunteer task, I must say that I enjoyed every bit of it. Creating solutions that tend to the needs of humanity and also a blueprint that stands the test of time. Feels like a Super Hero (winks).

And yeah in 2022, I added to my new year resolution, to become an advanced mapper on OpenStreetMap. To achieve this, I started strong by contributing daily to OpenStreetMap. I focused more on disaster responses except when I joined mapathons organized for a different need.

It’s a pleasure to have me mark this as a success in my resolution list, and I won’t stop contributing to humanity using the OpenStreetMap tool.

Recently, the Every Door editor became available in F-Droid, and I thought this was a great reason to tell you what I like about this editor.

On osm.org does not support video, so the article will be on telegra.ph https://telegra.ph/Why-you-should-try-Every-Door-01-02

Оригинал на русском языке: https://telegra.ph/Pochemu-vy-dolzhny-poprobovat-EveryDoor-01-02

I just realized that I should mention here that I’ve been putting a good deal of effort (in fits and starts) into combining osm.org/relation/12907666 with adjacent wooded areas and converting it and the areas around it into multipolygon geometry. It’s a huge job and I only work on it every now and then, but I’m pretty pleased with it as an example of what well-designed geometry can be.

I started my OSM journey as a YouthMapper with the University of Cape Coast YouthMapper chapter in 2016. It was very exciting and I loved every moment spent mapping projects on the tasking manager. This increased my zeal in wanting to become a cartographer :) , I can’t tell if it still holds now because I have grown to like the varieties in the mapping field…

Being a YouthMapper was a privilege because I got the chance to work on a project with OpenStreetMap Ghana through our late patron (Mr. James Eshun) which was also very exciting. The project was the Open Cities Africa, Accra Project which was sponsored by HOT. It was in the year 2018 I got to learn about Open Data Kit (ODK) and Open Mapping Kit (OMK). I also got to know about other open source mapping tools such as OSMAnd, OSM tracker and Maps.me. We did some remote mapping using JOSM and ID editor, mapping buildings, roads, POIs etc. and also went to the field to field validation.

After school I then joined OpenStreetMap Ghana as a volunteer and was privileged to be nominated to be part of the board members. As someone who loves to volunteer it was another opportunity for me to learn an also give back to the society.

For the love of contributing to OpenStreetMap, I had the opportunity to join the HOT Data Quality Internship(DQI) in 2020. There I learned more advanced ways of mapping using JOSM and other Open source tool such as QGIS. This sparked my interest in making sure data contributed was of good quality. I again joined DQI in 2021, it was an amazing encounter and another chance to learn about data quality and other open source tools such as OSGeo , Mapillary, Mapbox etc.

Although, I do not mapped as frequent as before, in order to keep myself in check, I joined OpenStreetMap Africa monthly mapathon where I get to map and validate mapathon tasks and also I go to the tasking manager to contribute to urgent projects.

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ι’м loѕт wιтн тнιѕ ѕтυғғ!! ☹️

This is the fifth in a series of posts which I’m doing inspired by other users’ monthly updates. This is only around a month later, so it’s brief

Catalina Island

In the beginning of December, I did day hikes on Catalina Island, southwest of Los Angeles. The Trans-Catalina Trail is already well-mapped on my route from the airport to Avalon, but I was able to map a few picnic table + shelters, and a one-way drive loop. On the Lone Tree trail, there are several steep points (I was surprised that a Jeep can drive these); one had an unmapped footpath detour (with official signage) around the steepest point. Another point has ~half of a trail. I included it for completeness, and to show that it doesn’t lead anywhere.

Lincoln Park

On the sidewalk I saw a sculpture “Gourd Man” which was missing from OSM. Articles about it typically say that it is in Village Green, but here it is (was it moved? is it a copy?). Anyway I added it.

UP Tacloban YouthMappers: 2022 Retrospective

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The damn project helps mappers by dividing some big area into smaller squares that a human can map. This diary is about the work done in the third year since the publication.

And, to be honest, not much has been done. I had a little of time this year. Still, there are some interesting improvements.

Deployment and server

I will start with probably the most boring stuff: I worked on the documentation and tests. That is thankless work, but I believe it pays off in the longer term. In short – 35 files changed, 1675 insertions(+), 842 deletions(-) and you, as mapper, should not see the difference before/after.

In parallel, I worked on the refactoring deploy. I have moved some upkeep procedures already and I will slowly continue the work.

Notathons

The most motivating for me, I think, is a feedback with a request like “hey, we are working on this and we need that”. This time it was from guys organizing notathons. We improved the damn plugin for JOSM to download notes automatically and periodically. Also, when using the plugin, the changeset comment is (finally!) automatically set based on the area information.

Get inspired by issues of similar projects

I wrote already about damn project point of view on some issues. From that diary, I think that this issue is solved by option to Review newbie, or Map or review work of other mappers workflow.

Because there are not many issues with the damn project (I do not complain!) I sometimes look up interesting issues somewhere else. So, what is there?

First two here and here deal with locking of multiple tasks (squares in damn) for mapping or validation (review in damn). Locking of multiple squares goes against the principle of “divide and map” and therefore it is problematic, but there are valid use-cases. When you need to map multiple squares, merge them first (in mappy client). Do the same with the squares you want to validate, but it is probably better idea to set which mapper in the damn plugin for JOSM instead.

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Few hours to end 2022, so I told my self that it’s a must to pen my experiences in the state of the map Nigeria 2022. It was a wonderful experience as a local Organizing committee member to host the first ever state of the map conference in Nigeria. It seem like an impossibility with lot’s of challenges that faced us, yet we pulled through together with our capacity coordinator Sir Victor Sunday spear heading us. The arrival of our participants and guests hyped my expectations of the conference that I have to put more energy to make it a reality. Indeed it was a reality and amazing one for that matter. My expectations weren’t unmet. I made new and wonderful friends like Petro from Tanzania, Mohammed Ali, Mamman from Abuja, Letwin from Zimbabwe and our wonderful women wing lead Chisom whom I’ve been eager to meet all along. It was like a reunion for unique mappers in general. To all the LOCs Light, Promise, Victor, Chinenye, Joana, you were all amazing and made a rewarding team. Thanks to all our sponsors and contributors to a successful inaugural state of the map 2022. Thanks everybody and Happy New year in minutes.

Few hours to end 2022, so I told my self that it’s a must to pen my experiences in the state of the map Nigeria 2022. It was a wonderful experience as a local Organizing committee member to host the first ever state of the map conference in Nigeria. It seem like an impossibility with lot’s of challenges that faced us, yet we pulled through together with our capacity coordinator Sir Victor Sunday spear heading us. The arrival of our participants and guests hyped my expectations of the conference that I have to put more energy to make it a reality. Indeed it was a reality and amazing one for that matter. My expectations weren’t unmet. I made new and wonderful friends like Petro from Tanzania, Mohammed Ali, Mamman from Abuja, Letwin from Zimbabwe and our wonderful women wing lead Chisom whom I’ve been eager to meet all along. It was like a reunion for unique mappers in general. To all the LOCs Light, Promise, Victor, Chinenye, Joana, you were all amazing and made a rewarding team. Thanks to all our sponsors and contributors to a successful inaugural state of the map 2022. Thanks everybody and Happy New year in minutes.

COMMUNITY WORKING GROUP MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME

Ever felt cold shivers down your spine because of a particular challenge but at the same time you want to face it head on? This was exactly how I felt when Arnalie asked ‘Would you be available to facilitate for your group, Chisom?’ in her sweet subtle voice during one of our Mentorship review meetings.

I was shocked to my bones and I literally had goose pimples all over, I didn’t see it coming. It would be my first time handling such a role and my group members are all experienced persons in the geospatial sector. All I wanted to do was scream ‘Nooo!’ out of fear and uncertainty but at the same time, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself for a change, so, after a little silence while battling with these thoughts in my head, I responded ‘Yes, I’d love to’. After accepting the role, I was encouraged and she told me I could always reach out to her if I need her assistance.

After the meeting, I received a message of my expected duties as a facilitator and all I could say was ‘Lord, help me’.

Gradually, I started initiating conversations on the group slack page (which was one of my responsibilities) and on the 7th November, 2022 we held our first group meet where I was the official facilitator. As the time for the meeting drew near, I got more anxious, I could only hope to get it right.

Fast forward to the meeting and every other meeting and discussion we had as a group via Google Meet and on the slack page, all of which turned out great and smooth, all thanks to my awesome group members; Laxmi Goparaju, Anuradha Rajanayake, Antonin Haas and Charles Chilufya. They were all supportive, never withholding any of their great ideas to ensure we succeeded as a team and together, we were able to deliver our legacy project in good time. I grew more confident with each meeting.

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