Hmm, I know that area very well. I used to go up to Llyn Brenig a lot - although not for quite some time.

I think you can still access the road all the way up to the edge of the lake - where there is now a car park - but the B-road curves north to avoid the lake.

Since I downloaded a new version of JOSM - I've not been able to get the NPE layer either. It just comes up with "Exception Occurred". I don't think it's anything to do with Firefox - because I have FF2. Only the NPE layer doesn't work. The NPE layer worked when I had an older version of JOSM (and also an older version of the WMS plugin).

If you're tracing something fairly small - and you can align to existing traces nearby - the error is not going to be that large when tracing from JOSM - especially if you align regularly. The main thing that bugs me about the Potlatch NPE stuff is that you can only view the NPE maps at zoom level z=14 - and it's almost impossible to do anything resembling an accurate trace at that level. Is it possible to offer NPE at, say, z=16 to z=18. Yes it'll probably be a bit pixellated - but it would still be useful.

Could they be streets which have been removed for redevelopment? I bet some of that TIGER data is pretty old, so wouldn't be out of the question.

I came across a place earlier this year in the UK where an entire area, previously run-down council-owned housing, had been demolished and had all the roads dug up ready for full scale redevelopment.

The renderings of paths on Osmarender *used* to be;
Yellow way = footpath (coincident with yellow waymarks on UK footpaths)
Blue way = bridleway (coincident with blue waymarks on UK bridleways)
Red way = byway (coincident with red waymarks on UK byways)

The red and blue still exists - but someone changed the one for footpaths to a dirty brown/grey colour...

That should of course by Stalybridge, not Staylbridge...

To eAi: It is a pity that no-one has done Staylbridge and surroundings indeed. I'll point out now that I was doing the area around Hadfield for a specific purpose, and I didn't venture much outside the area that I was meant to be mapping for that purpose.

All I was saying is; it's not as difficult as you think to get a considerable amount done - but someone has to just go and do it. It can be done.

When you next go to Honiton, take a GPS with you, make sure that you put a few roads on the map, and perhaps get out walking one day and put a few footpaths on, or get on the bike etc. You don't have to do everything in one go. If every OSMer who visits Honiton or the surrounding area does the same, then eventually it'll get finished.

barrieu: Do you really need to look at maps for reference. I mapped every single footpath, bridleway, byway, road and track in this area at the start of this year.
osm.org/?lat=53.4624&lon=-1.989&zoom=14&layers=B000FTF
I didn't refer to another map once. I just followed the signs as they were on the ground. Most of the time, it was easy to follow the route between waymarks. At other times, it wasn't as easy - and yes, I did make a couple of mistakes in the route I followed - but the map at the end should be pretty much correct.

I'm pretty sure that all of these places will eventually get covered by 'proper' surveying with GPS, eventually. The amount of data in the database has grown dramatically over the past couple of years. Two years ago, when I first joined the project, most areas of the map were still largely empty. Of course it takes time, but actually, the coverage in all areas, urban or rural, has improved dramatically. There are now nearly 75,000 mappers out there. When I joined in 2006, there were under 5,000.

It will happen eventually, but of course a mapping party is a good way of helping along progress in an area.

Unfortunately, we cannot use Google Earth to draw out maps. The licence is not compatable. In areas without Yahoo! aerial imagery - or other free sources, then using a GPS is the only option I think.

Highway=pedestrian is for roads that have been "pedestrianised", or have been created without vehicle access.

In the UK, this has been the case in many town and city centres - where the main shopping streets have been converted so that motor vehicle traffic can no-longer use them. E.g. this example from a town that I've mapped in Cheshire, England
http://bp1.blogger.com/_Ly0-moWuUjU/R5O7mbkrrHI/AAAAAAAACKo/lzE4uJdI6CE/s1600-h/Congleton+pedestrianised+area,+Jan+08.jpg

I certainly wouldn't tag pavements/sidewalks as highway=pedestrian.

You can get deviations if you are near to large buildings - sometimes you can get a "multipath" error - where the signal from one or more satellites has reached you via 'bouncing' off the building. This makes the unit think you are further from that satellite - because the signal has taken a longer route to reach you - hence you'll get some error in your position which can make a straight route not straight on your trace. If you actually can get down the middle of the road safely - then this will make sure you are further from any buildings that may cause these errors. And sometimes you'll just need to travel down a route more than once to get a decent trace. The more independent traces you have - the closer the "average" trace is likely to be to the correct route.

E.g. see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS#Error_sources

Sorry, I'm in agreement with daveemtb and alv here. For instance, see one I mapped the other day.
osm.org/?lat=53.16474&lon=-2.21032&zoom=17&layers=0B00FTF

A dual carriageway remains a dual carriageway - even if the central reservation/divider/median etc. is not continuous for short lengths. You can think of the bits where the central reservation is not continuous as roads crossing both carriageways - this will also facilitate turning using routing software. Obviously it's a judgement call - but if the gap between two sections of central reservation is short - e.g. a normal road width plus extra room to allow all turning traffic to manuoever easily - then it should still be tagged as dual carriageway really.

In my example - the gap is around 25m (~82ft). The width of the road that crosses the dual carriageway is around half that.

Much bigger gap than that then by all means tag as single carriageay - but I would say if you tag it as a single carriageway - then it would have to be long enough that you'd actually put a way there - not just a meeting at a node.

Remember also that the correct footpath may well follow the trampled path, rather than the farm track. The right of way might have existed far longer than the track. I came across a restricted byway - which was well signposted on the ground - and all of 10 yards away from a farm track - bit odd to see 2 gates side by side at every field boundary. The farm track was also marked "private" for the avoidance of doubt.

I don't really see the point of just tracing if you have no intention of visiting the location to collect street names or POI etc. Fine if it is going to be done as part of a 2-stage mapping process; in my opinion not useful if roads are just traced. I agree Chris that it often takes longer to map than if the tracing had not been done - particularly if ways need to be split - ways need to be cut where 2 roads come close but don't actually meet in reality etc. etc. It's often quicker just deleting the original stuff and mapping in the usual way afterwards.

Mapnik re-renders only once per week. Just be patient!

I think this new OSM Aware is excellent, but in my opinion, having just the most recent day's changes is slightly myopic. If it was the last week's changes, that would be much more useful, and would then be an invaluable tool.

Would that consume too much memory?

Good work! I've been meaning to get Cheshire East done, but I'm a bit further behind you.

Nothing particularly high-tech.

I just copied the OSM "My traces" pages into Microsoft Excel. Did a text to columns transform, then just added up the numbers.

Doing this with your page, I get 203,940 points.

I did some mapping of some narrow lanes in Cheshire, and now it looks like I've driven through a field, perhaps even a ford.

Actually, come to think of it, I did happen to drive through the Swettenham ford near Holmes Chapel!

I've noticed several places where the same name sometimes appears with a space, and sometimes without. E.g. one near to me has "Broadwalk" and "Broad Walk" on signs at different ends of the road. Which is correct? Difficult to tell!