OpenStreetMap
Hi there, new user in South London (Croydon) here.
I’ve been a map-geek pretty much all my life, but although I’ve been aware of OSM for a while I figured it was beyond me, especially with a fairly rubbish PC and no GPS.
The spark that persuaded me to jump in was when I started cycle-commuting and thinking more closely about the geography around me, particularly hills. But I couldn’t find any decent London topography maps. This guy’s excellent but limited use of Google’s data got me wondering if something similar could be done with OSM, and this article showed me that yes, it could, and a whole lot more. I installed JOSM and Maperitive and had created what I wanted by the end of the evening. So simple! So of course then I had to join OSM properly :)
I’m also a keen walker with a young son, and I like exploring my area’s more obscure parks to see what’s there. I’ve noticed there are a lot of parks in South London that are just blank spaces, waiting to be mapped. I don’t have a GPS right now but I can visit them, take pics, and do my best from Bing imagery. I hope to get a GPS soon so I can check my work so far.
Thanks for reading, and happy mapping! Dave.
Discussion
Comment from CycleStreets on 11 April 2012 at 13:57
Welcome to OpenStreetMap! Great to have you on board.
Do have a look at CycleStreets: http://croydon.cyclestreets.net/ . The routing automatically will take hills into account automatically.
Do consider adding things like surface quality to existing OSM data - that can considerably improve routing in some cases.
Comment from seav on 11 April 2012 at 16:22
Good to hear that you got hooked on OSM. Happy Mapping! :)
Comment from Sanderd17 on 11 April 2012 at 19:13
For a GPS, you might consider using a smart-phone. As with a smart-phone, you have extra apps to help the mapping (so you can take notes with a location attached), and it’s no problem to take geo-referenced photos.
Smart-phones also have navigation apps (that make usage of OSM data). I use OsmAnd f.e.
Comment from AndrewBuck on 11 April 2012 at 21:16
Another good way to contribute without a GPS is to print out a map from walking papers and just take that with you when you go on your survey. Then as you take pictures you can note whatever you want by just writing it on the walking papers you printed out (including things like road surfaces mentioned above, or where you are talking pictures from, etc). Then when you get home you scan the walking papers you wrote on (or just lay them on a table and take a picture of one page at a time) and when you upload them back to the walking papers site it will make them available as a background layer in JOSM. This lets you quickly write down notes in the field and then overlay the actual OSM data you are working on in JOSM right over top your field notes.
Anyway, hope this helps and hope you enjoy working with OpenStreetMap.
-Buck
Comment from Mappo on 12 April 2012 at 10:10
@CycleStreets
You mention adding surface quality will help CycleStreets routing, is there a wiki page or other documentation or QA tools (I’m thinking a bike focused http://keepright.ipax.at/ type thing) for what you consider most useful or best practice? Everything I’ve found is fairly high-level e.g. adding missing streets. What things other than surface quality are important and exactly what tags will your software recognize?
I’d happily improve my local area, but am not sure how to go beyond the basics.
Comment from LivingWithDragons on 12 April 2012 at 12:24
Welcome to OpenStreetMap!
I mapped part of Croydon (including paths in parks) several years ago as part of a mapping party. But too much annoyance my phone gps app crashed and I lost the traces. I’ve always wanted to go back and sort it out, but I don’t think I’m likely to be there any time soon.
Enjoy mapping, and getting to know the community.
Comment from Pgd81 on 12 April 2012 at 13:31
Thanks to all for the friendly and helpful comments!
@CycleStreets - Yep, great site; already use it as my default cycle route-planner! However, there are various route planning/mapping sites that will show you the gradient profile of a specific route. What I was more interested in was topography more generally – where the hills are, and how the roads, railways and settlements interact with them. (and also where London’s lost rivers flowed, which is also an interest of mine :) )
@Mappo - Seconded! Use it often so would be great to contribute back.
@Sanderd17 - I’m hoping to upgrade to a smartphone with GPS as soon as possible, hopefully next month.
@AndrewBuck - Thanks, I’ll give that a go. Croydon town centre has almost no detail at all currently so I’ve got any amount of opportunity to try these things out.
@LivingWithDragons - Oh, how annoying! What do you do in a mapping party - do you all work on a similar area and compare notes, or do you go off to different places and meet up later? And how large an area would be worked on?
Comment from Tom Chance on 16 April 2012 at 16:18
I’d like to add my “welcome” as a fellow south London mapper, though I’m up in Southwark.
In my experience smart phone GPS is terribly inaccurate, most of the time you can spot all the footpaths and other features with the Bing aerial imagery so there aren’t many uses for GPS in London any more. I find that the aerial imagery, combined with notes and checking against existing features, makes for far more accurate mapping than my phone’s in-built GPS. I only use a cheap GPS (NaviGPS) and other people’s GPS traces on the main road network to ensure I’m compensating for the fact that the Bing imagery is usually offset by a few metres.