I am trying to get a listing of all streets within a city or a geographical area. Can this be done?
First city: Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
Thanks
OpenStreetMap
I am trying to get a listing of all streets within a city or a geographical area. Can this be done?
First city: Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
Thanks
Discussion
Comment from chillly on 19 January 2010 at 21:53
Mapsomatic http://www.maposmatic.org/ will draw a map of a city and includes a street index. This is a bit more than you asked for, but it might help you and shows what can be done.
Comment from Vclaw on 19 January 2010 at 22:34
Nominatim can give you a list of features that are within a city / region etc (including streets): http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/
Search for a place, then click on the "details" link.
The problem is most cities are just mapped as nodes, not areas. So Nominatim has to estimate the area they cover, which is not always accurate.
It looks like that's the case for Barrie: http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/details.php?place_id=17886
If you know the boundaries of the city you could map it as an area to replace the node, which would improve the Nominatim result.
Also note that Nominatim lists some streets more than once, presumably because they are split into multiple ways.
Comment from Delivery on 20 January 2010 at 00:14
Thank you both!
chillly: I tried http://www.maposmatic.org/ but Barrie, ON was greyed out.Same for many common cities-like Boston, MA. I guess this means that no data is available for these locations?. But, I like this service because it can provide a csv file which would be ideal. Am I doing it right?
Vclaw: Thank you for actually checking that Barrie, ON works on this service. It appears to be very comprehensive. Wondering if the output can be in a data format easily uploaded (csv?)or maybe can I write a program to extract from this list? Am I permitted to use and/or sell a product that uses this data?
I am most concerned about having only the streets in the city listed-it is OK if I have extra, just not be missing any. So, I would probably grab an area larger than the city anyway.
How confident are you that the data and/or streets list is complete?
Steve
Comment from Delivery on 20 January 2010 at 00:16
Vclaw,
I also found it rather odd that all street names in Barrie staret with A,B,C,D,E No streets with letters F-Z are listed. Could this be? Or maybe it only returns a partial list?
Comment from Delivery on 20 January 2010 at 00:18
Vclaw,
Nw tha I look at the data more closely, I see the same street name list many times. Any idea what this means?
Comment from Vclaw on 20 January 2010 at 01:27
There's more details about Nominatim here: osm.wiki/Nominatim
It does have options for providing some output in XML format etc. Though it says "Currently the details page creates a high load on the server and is only intended as a debugging aide, as a result no xml api is currently provided. Scraping or heavy use is likely to result in an IP ban. "
So maybe not for the lists on that page.
I presume there is a limit on how many streets it lists, which is why it seems to be only A to E? I've checked a few other cities, and they are also partial lists.
Also, the same street listed many times, seems to be because each street is made up of several different ways. This is probably because of where / how the data was imported from. Though there are other reasons to split up streets into separate sections, eg if the speed limit or width changes along the street.
Comment from Delivery on 20 January 2010 at 01:54
Vclaw,
Thank you. I'll bet you are right on the mark on this one.
Sounds like chillly's suggestion of http://www.maposmatic.org/ is a good idea. But, every city I tried came up greyed-out with no data available. I thought maposmatic was based on the openstreetmaps.org database of street which seems amazingly comprehensive. Certainly, it has may streets in Barri,ON. But, it shows unavailable in maposmatic.
Do you think I am accessing it wrong?
Comment from Delivery on 20 January 2010 at 02:09
Vclaw,
Just noticed the option on http://www.maposmatic.org/ to create a map using a "bounding box". Do you know what this is? When I try it, it starts in France and won't let me change to Canada. Then it gives the error that the bounding box is too large and returns to "No Localization".
I think I must be doing something very wrong or am going crazy.
Comment from IainMaclean on 20 January 2010 at 07:19
I had a quick try and it worked for me. Have a look at:
http://www.maposmatic.org/jobs/8451
The only problem is that I had to go in one more level than I would have liked, as it cut off some of the streets, but overall it looks as if it got most of the streets.
Comment from davespod on 20 January 2010 at 07:34
I think others have answered your main question, so I'll address the supplementary:
> Am I permitted to use and/or sell a product that uses this data?
I think you'll find quite a comprehensive answer here:
osm.wiki/Legal_FAQ
Comment from !i! on 20 January 2010 at 08:09
The guys at mapsosmatic.org have at the moment problems with non french borders, cause every country has a bit different approach to assign the boundary levels. I think they will fix it soon.
As said specify the boundingbox by hand and everything works well :)
Comment from amm on 20 January 2010 at 08:18
I am only guessing but potentially Mapsomatic is not giving you the possibility to create a map of Barrie, ON as it doesn't have a boundary relation. Whereas Nominatim goes away and tries to guess a somewhat arbitrary city boundary, Maposmatic might just say "sorry, I can't do it without as it would be too inaccurate".
So incase you know the city boundaries, it would be great to add it. ( osm.wiki/Relation:boundary )
Comment from Delivery on 21 January 2010 at 03:53
IainMacLean,
Thank you. I followed your link and you have accomplished exactly what I was trying to do for Barrie, ON. My question is: how did you do it and what did I do wrong?
Can you explain what you mean by "I had to go in one more level than I would have liked" I have many more cities to do. Even if the method is cumbersome, it is so much better than my other options.
Please teach me.