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.

There are quite a few other systems that use OSM data. For example, check out what Strava does. Wahoo’s latest bike computer, the ELEMNT ACE, uses OSM for its maps. 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. They are essentially geeky desk jockeys who live in a world of electronic maps and treating datasets as some unholy gospel. Their edits don’t match real world conditions or understand how routing apps work when a cyclist is actually relying upon them in real-time. 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 don’t just live behind a desk. I cycle around 100-200 km per week, and so familiar with all the routes that I update.

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