My focus is to update routes used by cyclists in the Lower Mainland of the Province of British Columbia, and in Whatcom County in Washington State. I update OSM so that routing apps used by cyclists direct them to the best and safest routes. I also add a copious amount of details to the surrounding areas to provide cyclists with useful information on amenities. I am familiar with all the routes that I update, as I cycle around 100-200 km per week.

There are quite a few other systems that use OSM data. For example, check out what Strava does. I have observed how poor mapping in OSM gets fed into Strava, RideWithGPS and other systems to cause problems.

I know how things can go wrong, through my decades of experience in the technology industry together with my post-graduate and professional qualifications. I’ve studied technological disasters, like Therac-25 and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. One of my friends had his mother crippled and turned into a vegetable by Therac-25. In my own personal experience, I have lived through “Garbage in, garbage out”, and it is very real.

I have encountered many people throughout my life who operate completely in theory, but are totally clueless about the practical or real-life outcomes. That includes some users that I’ve encountered through OSM. Google Maps has already caused deaths, and now that bike computers offer dynamic routing, I’m just waiting for the day where someone gets killed because of bad OSM data causing a cyclist to be directed into danger.

I deliberately chose a demon’s name for my OSM username. I am an angry and deeply cynical individual. Think twice before messaging me.