I have uploaded my GPS Traces to OSM, What Next?

Danno

I have uploaded GPS traces from my Nuvi 215 to Open Street Maps, but I don't know what to do next, to turn the traces into roads, and classify them properly. Anyone with any help please?

IrlJidel

Danno wrote: »

I have uploaded GPS traces from my Nuvi 215 to Open Street Maps, but I don't know what to do next, to turn the traces into roads, and classify them properly. Anyone with any help please?

Hi Danno,

You'll need to learn how to use Potlatch, which is the online editor.

For starters, have a look at the Potlatch introduction video available here or read the help built into Potlatch.

http://showmedo.com/videotutorials/series?name=mS2P1ZqS6

Or read this doc: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Potlatch/Primer

If you use irc you can talk to some Irish OSM mappers at irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ie

mackerski

Hi Danno,

It's great to see you getting involved. The fact that you're using a Nuvi to gather your traces is problematic - as a vehicle device, it's configured to "lock on road" as Garmin describes it. That is, if your position deviates a little from where your Garmin map _thinks_ the road is, it'll correct your position based on that.

Two problems with this for OSM purposes:

1) When you turn off a mapped road to an unmapped one, it takes your device at least 10m to believe that you have really left the road - so your trace will be inaccurate until you have "escaped" the road.

2) The trace you end up with is effectively a copy of the Navteq maps on your Nuvi, making them contaminated from a copyright perspective. It also means that OSM would inherit all the imperfections of the Navteq map.

Hand-held Garmin devices allow lock-on-road to be switched off, and doing so is essential for the capture of accurate traces. Nuvis typically don't even have the option. I'd suggest you try to disable the built-in map, which you can probably do under setup, maps, map info or some such option. It has the drawback that you can't refer to the map while driving, but should prevent you locking onto a road that will break your trace.

See if you can collect a test trace with the map disabled on the Nuvi - I'll know from the trace whether this trick has worked.

Danno

If I set it to padestrian mode and just drove around with it - would it work?

mackerski

Danno wrote: »

If I set it to padestrian mode and just drove around with it - would it work?

It's possible, but still not guaranteed. Finding out would be fairly easy, though.

Have you tried any of the OSM editors yet?

Danno

I have tried the edit button on the homepage of OSM, I drew lines over my trace, but nothing happens, it feels like an akward app to use! :?

Danno

http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Danno/traces/571447 was taken in Pad mode... is it okay?

mackerski

Danno wrote: »

http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Danno/traces/571447 was taken in Pad mode... is it okay?

That doesn't seem to have helped, I'm sorry to say. I think you'd actually need it to be in an off-road mode, which some Nuvis have IIRC, but I think they are all higher-end models.

It would be worth trying again with the map disabled completely, as annoying as that is.

As to the difficulty of editing, there is an unavoidable learning curve. Remember that you're not just looking to draw "with crayons" and produce what looks like a well-drawn map - you also need to make sure that roads connect to each other at nodes (for routing), that they not join at nodes where there is not access between them (think motorway bridges) and that you apply useful tagging to identify name, function, meta-data etc. Think of it as building a database rather than focussing on the visible map.

Where are you located? There might be another mapper in the area who could show you the ropes. It can feel very counter-intuitive at first, but it gets a lot easier once you grasp the fundamental concepts.

Danno

http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Danno/traces/573667 was taken with the maps off and in padestrian mode... is it of use?

mackerski

Danno wrote: »

http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Danno/traces/573667 was taken with the maps off and in padestrian mode... is it of use?

Hi Danno,

Third time lucky. This trace doesn't suffer from the lock-on-road virus, and is certainly usable. It isn't as good as you would get from a device allowing you to log one track point per second, but it's a great deal better than not mapping at all, so I think you're good to go.

You should check out the Ireland Project Page for information on our tagging norms and (towards the bottom) contact details for mailing list, IRC and other means of keeping in touch with other mappers.

Happy mapping!

Danno

I added Quigly Park in Rathdowney co. Laois. can you tell me if I have done that right?

AndrewMc

Danno wrote: »

I added Quigly Park in Rathdowney co. Laois. can you tell me if I have done that right?

Hi Danno, yes it looks fine to me! One small detail: if it's a residential street (like a housing estate, etc) we'd usually mark it as highway=residential rather than unclassified, but only you know if that's the case.

Also, in the corner of the maps on OpenStreetmap.org you'll see two links — Permalink and Shortlink. If you right-click and "copy link address" on either of them you can give those addresses to other people to let them quickly see where you're referring to, like this one: http://osm.org/go/es2G0qwR