OpenStreetMap
Kvadraturen roads were already very well mapped and named so I focused on recording the particulars of all the pesky one-way streets, streets only permitted for buses, turn restrictions and the like. Even if Kvadraturen is essentially a grid, many routes through the city center require surprisingly massive detours and will only be routed correctly if all the finicky driving restrictions are available in the map. On one particular occasion, I only moved 400m if measured in straight line while my car speedometer read 2.4 km due to all the detours.
I’ve also added restaurants, cafes, hotels (not nearly half), ATMs and other useful stuff for tourists. It’s kind of embarrassing - I’ve walked, driven and cycled these streets ~500 times but I was still very surprised to see how many details there are to map when you’re really paying attention.
Ok…enough rambling.
I also surveyed and named the streets in the small residential area north of the grid. Here there’s the funny case where one end of a short 50 m street has one name (“Fergefjellet”) and the other end a different name (“Sigurd Gundersens gate”). How did it end up like that..?
Ok…ok… really too much rambling now. Next time: Outskirts of Kvadraturen and, hopefully, much more.
Discussion
Comment from Sanderd17 on 9 August 2012 at 13:58
Yeah, restrictions, tell me about it. My city decided that it wanted more visitors. Result: all one-way streets point towards the centre.
In other words, it’s very easy to get in, but very hard to get out. And if you miss one turn, you’re likely to arrive at the other side of the town.
Anyway, I’ve also been doing some micro-mapping lately: addresses and extra POI information. I’ve really began to value some tags you don’t see a lot: like website=* or phone=* or opening_hours.
It surprises me how few there are, and when using an app like OsmAnd on your smartphone, they’re really handy to check a website of a restaurant, or to call it immediately from OSM data.
Comment from Jarl Arntzen on 9 August 2012 at 18:43
Haha. That almost sounds like some kind of joke from a Simpsons-cartoon. The mayor: “We declare today: ‘One-way street day’! Let all roads lead to Springfield. We will all become rich!”
Comment from Jarl Arntzen on 9 August 2012 at 18:46
Oh, and BTW: I didn’t know OsmAnd actually uses website=* or phone=*. That’s really handy. Thanks for the tip. Do you know of more apps or websites who make use of this data?