OpenStreetMap
29 August 2012 - Warstones Gardens / Fareham Crescent
Posted by PaulInWolves on 29 August 2012 in English.This area of Wolverhampton is covered with footpaths - some of them named. Today I used GPS mapping to trace a chunk of them (and they way they criss cross, I’m sure any locals watching thought I was somewhat mad).
As the main purpose of this to me is an aid to walking routes, I’ve left out some paths that are just there to cut off a corner, and in most cases joined the end of a walkway to the road it leads from. However, I’ve included some paths that run parallel to the road where there are many such junctions.
Discussion
Comment from Sanderd17 on 30 August 2012 at 09:11
Yeah, some people must have thought I’m crazy too. But the things you did could have been done more simple. You have a “background” button in your editor, if you choose for “bing images”, you can draw it on top of that (Bing was so kind to donate their images to us).
It’s best to make sure the images are aligned well in your area (this needs a few gpx traces), but once that is done, you can map the rest from the images.
Once you mapped the lines, local surveying is off coarse needed to tag the names, the benches, dustbins, surface of the roads, speed limits and a bazillion of other things you can’t see on the images.
Also, watch out for the “snap” feature in Potlatch. I see you have snapped this point to the road, while it probably isn’t meant to be so.
I hope I helped you a bit.
Happy mapping, and enjoy your hand-made maps ;)
Comment from PaulInWolves on 31 August 2012 at 12:00
Hi Sanderd17, thanks for the comment! The reason I’m making diary entries is so other mappers can see my intent and make suggestions, as I’m new to this.
I’m already tracing on known walkways using the background images, for footpaths in the area. I decided it was too tricky for that particular area - trees block the aerial view, some of the footpaths are now restricted by gated access, some paths have steps, and so on! As I want the paths to be useful for walking routes and disabled access (and some exercise doesn’t go amiss) I thought physically walking it would be the best approach.
As for the node you mentioned; it’s a tricky one! For the footpaths to be used for walking routes they have to link to roads at some point. But I don’t want to create loads of unnecessary nodes. I wouldn’t normally add a footpath that runs parallel to a road; I did in this case because there are so many other paths that run off it, and I didn’t want to clutter the road with footpath junctions.
Anyway, I’ve redrawn that whole path now :-)
Comment from Sanderd17 on 31 August 2012 at 12:28
Thanks for the ping, we normally don’t get a mail that there’s a new reaction.
First, don’t worry about unnecessary nodes. If we want to map the world, the map will be big.
And naturally, surveying is needed, but the times we had to do everything with GPS are over. Now GPS is just an additional help for mapping. Your way of working is perfectly fine.
For that point I’ve mentioned. You need to consider what directions will be generated. I think a left-right (to get from the road on the footway) is more clear than a “slight left” or even “straight on”. Crossings with more than 4 roads on one point are always very tricky. So if in real life, there aren’t more than 4 ways joining on that point (but they join on several, close points), it’s best to draw them on several points. Now it looks a lot better.
Happy mapping