Hello Mappers
                   I caused a few routing errors when I first started mapping because I didn't check that the final node of a path I had mapped was connected to another path, track or road. I didn't know about routing then. Seeing an image of a dotted path at a road looked to be an obvious connection. But when using a routing engine routing would fail.
     Since I started to use routing engines more. I have discovered more faults. They are often caused by tagging omissions.  Unless a way allows the mode of transport that you have selected the routing engines will not use that  way ( path track or road).   Some mappers in England know that a Bridleway is a legal right of way for foot, cycles and horses and  they assume routers will use these ways, But they don't.  For any rights of way we need to add foot=yes for footpaths.  Bridleways  need all three tags,  foot =yes, cycle=yes, and horse=yes, to get routing engines to work as expected.   Potlatch and iD editors have these  tags built-in but you will have to select  each one of them.   When we edit the map the database is changed instantly,  the drawn map will maybe need a refresh to renew the display however. (ctrl  F5  on my Win PC)   We would hope we could quickly test the routing after our mapping or correction, but we cannot. OSRM and GraphHopper only update their copy of the map data every few days.  For this reason we will have to check a few days later.  see this please https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/83945/foot-routing-failing-bridleway-alone-doesnt-let-it-work-it-needs-footyes
                                                                                                                                              Happy Mapping and Routing
                                             Andy                                                                                                                                            

Hello Mappers I do a lot of walking in the English countryside. Sometimes I plan routes and find these two “engines” very useful.  GraphHopper https://www.graphhopper.com/    and OSRM https://openrouteservice.org/  These two routing engines are on the main map page and use openstreetmap data. Try them out, click on the bent arrow and select a couple of points, select mode of travel. for example  osm.org/directions?engine=graphhopper_foot&route=52.3099%2C-0.3175%3B52.2873%2C-0.3173 move the point a little and you have osm.org/directions?engine=graphhopper_foot&route=52.3100%2C-0.3158%3B52.2873%2C-0.3173 You now have a route, a distance and elevation trace of almost the whole circuit  of Grafham Water Reservoir.    Sometimes two points will generate an odd route. My next diary entry will cover some of the problems and how to fix them.                                Happy Mapping and Route Planning Andy

I travelled to Eaton Socon to visit a shop and decided the have have a short walk. I found a bench and stopped to eat a banana and take a drink. It was only 2c. Luckily the air was fairly still otherwise may not have smelt gas, I asked a passerby if she could confirm it but she said she couldn’t. Several hours later i compared what I had seen on may walk to OSM and remembered the gas smell and Goggled “ gas smell” and the suggested action. I rang the number and explained what I had noticed. Thirty minutes later an engineer rang to ask for first hand description and location, I gave him the details, using OSM to remind me of what was around, I asked if he would let me know the result he he did find a problem. An hour later he called again and confirmed there was a leak and it seemed to be from the gas main under road and would probably be a major disruptive problem to fix.
osm.org/?mlat=52.21025&mlon=-0.28966#map=19/52.21025/-0.28966&layers=N

A group of wind turbines were constructed at Gravely Cambridgeshire UK around 5km from my home and have been mapped by Great Britain’s Ordnance Survey, It took a couple of years for them to map them which was quick, for them. Note our OSM openstreetmap was purposely similarity named to promote it, that was how I discovered osm within a year or so of it’s creation by Steve Coast. I looked at OSM and noticed the turbines had not been mapped, how could I plot them? ( without copying from the Ordinance Survey Map). The turbines are by private ground and most are at least a kilometre from any public access. I gave the problem some thought and looked at the area and noticed that from some directions the turbines were in two lines of 4. I now had a plan I would position myself and my gps on these lines in turn and plot four points, that would give me two lines that the turbines could be plotted along. I used field papers and printed the map so i could sketch the rough layout and take notes. I used my Garmin Oregon 450 and recorded 12 waypoints at positions along the surrounding roads where either four or two turbines aligned. Using Potlatch2 the plan was to join pairs of the waypoints with an untagged way then do the same with a cross pair, the intersection of the two ways should be where a turbine could be plotted. The untagged ways were then deleted. I repeated the process for the eight turbines, job done. I checked ( and only checked) against OS.All my results were within 40 meters most within 10 meters of OS. THEY could be wrong!! The downside is you can only see them in an editor as none of the Map Page maps render them…yet.

I go walking several times each week sometimes with a Ramblers group, sometimes alone. The Ramblers are a UK walking club that was formed over eighty years ago. The Ramblers legally campaign to keep countryside paths and tracks open and free to use. I record where I have been with a Garmin Oregon 450. After arriving home I upload the trace as public to OSM. I sometimes view it overlaid on OSM by using GPSprune or Viking, if stuff is missing or seems wrong I will open Potlatch2 and do an edit. Yesterday I set off to join the Peterborough group Ramblers walk but I arrived late and I missed them. I hoped I could track them by guessing the paths they may taken and asking anyone who may have noticed them but it was a dull day and few people were out in the village. I have noticed that many beautiful villages seem deserted during the day even at weekends. I explored a few paths and strained my eyes see if I could pick them out but didn’t see any sign of the group so my walk turned into a survey and I walked several paths that had not been mapped. I only walked about 5km in total but 2km were new to OSM so slight disappointment turned into success in the end. I added several footpaths, a Pub which had a path through it’s back yard, a short road to the school and a drainage ditch. PS Everybody is welcome to try out a few Ramblers walks without payment as long as you can walk the distance and have suitable kit, just turn up. It’s a good way to get some low impact exercise see, explore the countryside and make new friends. There are lots of groups, i have walked with over twenty different groups. A sociable way to survey! Just Google Ramblers for info.

I have not used iD much as I usually use Potlatch2 which I’m very happy with. I was interested in seeing how iD handled turn restrictions, the answer is very well. It works like this. Start iD, click on junction node. click on the “in Way” and the allowed out ways have a green indicator and the not allowed show red. You only have to click on one of the Reds or Greens to toggle or swap them, Excellent.

I noticed that mapometer, after a couple or emails and a long wait, added the osm copyright to the osm map. The traveline public transport website have moved over to osm and also credit us and last but not least the BBC had a TV show, I think Dan Snow was in it and they looked at world war one navigation problems by walking around London? they illustrated the problems by using some familiar looking maps. I waited for the credits and OSM were included. I am quite pleased especially when I think back to the few i told about osm who questioned its credibility. Well done everybody.

Hi All Some hiking pals and I were talking about openstreetmap and how it works. This is my explanation of how the data is used to make the map. The map is stored first as a big database of co-ordinates or nodes each with a description or tag, strings of them could be a road, path, a village boundary, a coastline. a single node could be a pub or bus stop, several could form a factory outline. These nodes and ways (strings of nodes) and their tags can then be processed or rendered into a map. The map can have different styles so that its shows what is important to the user. for example a walkers map may show a red dotted foot paths and small streams and foot bridges but not street names. a road map will have a smaller scale with readable roads and towns only. The view-able Openstreetmap is also stored as sets of maps or tiles or images at different scales or zoom levels. Zoom 1 shows the whole world as one map or tile. and each click of the + or scroll of the mouse halves the area and increases the numbers of tiles by a factor of four. When we have clicked to Zoom 19 we have a map tile of about 150 meters wide in detail, roads names and house numbers if mapped will then be readable. At zoom 19 there will be quite a lot of tiles (90000000000 of them ), although many map tiles will be of remote areas of ocean and land without anything on. Openstreetmap decided to supply its maps in this way as they can be put on screen faster than calculating and drawing each screen individually. Another advantage is the maps are easy to read. just imagine the zoom one coastline 262144 times wider than on Zoom 1 or Zoom 19 house 262144 times smaller. I hope this explains a bit how the data is used to display a map quickly and clearly. Happy Mapping Andy.

Today I went to a pubic consultation on the proposed A14 road upgrade (it’s a section of road in Cambridgeshire UK) . The consultation was hosted by the Highways Agency ( they look after and manage roads and traffic in the UK) and showed the route and detailed junctions on Ordinance Survey Maps, But I was pleased to see they had a PC set up which showed some of the route layered onto good old openstreetmap as “people can see whats what with our clear and named streets”. I said I was the mapper of this and that on our map and they asked a few questions about OSM and they seemed impressed with OSM. I left thrilled that a big national organisation takes our stuff seriously.

Hi all
I signed up about three years ago but it as taken a ruptured Achilles to get me going!
I have, over the last three years walked over a thousand miles, with mainly with the Ramblers usually with the a garmin etrex recording the track,so my enforced immobility as made me get to grips with editing the map.I have tried most of the editors and now use potlach2. Well done to everybody the project is great. I was amazed when I typed in some address or just a street I had been around the world up came the map. Bye Andy