OpenStreetMap

For years, I knew there was an address hole in OSM along Eglinton Avenue East. Querying Nominatim for an address would often return a location ≥ 5 km away from the real result.

Then came Metrolinx’s clean up and import of address ranges. Folks might turn their noses up at address ranges, but at least ranges give you a location within a few metres without adding millions of nodes. This is good enough for Metrolinx’s commuters, and improves the map.

A couple of days ago, I had to look up an address while mobile on Eglinton East. All I had was my phone with Google Maps. I put in the address, and Google suggested somewhere really far from where I’d expected it to be. Oddly enough, Google was suggesting a location in the general area that OSM always used to return. How nice to know our addresses can be more useful than those provided by a corporate entity!

Location: Victoria Village, Don Valley East, North York, Toronto, Golden Horseshoe, Ontario, M4A 2B1, Canada

Discussion

Comment from Omnific on 14 November 2016 at 23:31

“Folks might turn their noses up at address ranges, but at least ranges give you a location within a few metres without adding millions of nodes.”

This is why I don’t understand the aversion of the OSM community to importing the address ranges from TIGER for the United States. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.

Log in to leave a comment