At the moment I’m only doing small edits, or edits using StreetComplete. I got frustrated by some people making bad edits which persuaded me there were other things that I could do rather than editing OSM.

Particularly annoying behaviours for me:-

• Dunning-Kruger edits by people who have been here for a while but don’t edit that often - people who are absolutely sure they are right even when queried (and think the wiki is wrong), especially people whose changeset edits read like they are selling houses
• people deliberately setting data they know is wrong but to make some route planner or map do what they want, even though they have been challenged on this repeatedly in the past
• people adding data like access, surface, or tracktype in bulk to tracks that lack them just to fill in missing data without any evidence (so all tracks in a particular area get set to tracktype=grade2 whether they are actually asphalt or mud)
• people copying from developers plans, rights of way descriptions, or other maps at the expense of reality (I map what’s there on the ground, they “correct” it because they’ve seen it on a plan, my journey planner tries to send me on unbuilt paths, through fences where I don’t have access, or my road bike on a dirt track suitable for a 4x4 off-road vehicle, and repeat over several years).

My main goal with editing OSM is to improve route planning on foot, bicycle, or public transport, hence why I’m keen to get surface, tracktype, smoothness, access, and construction tags correct.

Many of my StreetComplete edits over the past few days were from a moving car, hence they might be a bit disjointed.

I’m slowly catching up with the mass of data I’ve collected over the past couple of years - uploading footage to Mapillary and the use of OSMUK Cadastral Parcels have improved my editing but vastly increase the time it takes to edit the map. Plus I’ve found other things to do in my spare time.

I’m probably going to pause my Isle of Wight edits now, work on some south of Basingstoke, then try to make it out to Farnborough, Woking, and Wokingham to make sure my data isn’t out of date before editing the map round there.

I’m now back editing OpenStreetMap. I’ve got some outstanding messages in my OSM inbox, which I should get to at the weekend.

I’m going to be too busy to update OpenStreetMap or even to respond to messages quickly, at least for a few weeks. I may make the odd edit in the meantime.

I rode from Theale to Bracknell today to check on the progress of the NCN422 cycle route. There are still large holes, and it’s mostly shared use paths rather than proper infrastructure. It will probably be a month or two before I get round to updating OSM with my findings,as there are other things in the pipeline.

I’ve submitted a FOIA request to find out where the byelaws cover, as I’ve seen areas where (according to new-ish signs) the byelaws still apply even after the land has changed use.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/aldershot_and_district_military

I need to train my fingers to spell “permissive”. Alternatively, I’ll try copying and pasting it…

Today I shall be reverting an expained series of changes where a number of tracks and bridleways in the areas of Lighwater, Frimley, and Deepcut, plus cycleways around Woking Park, were all demoted to highway=footway. These were ones that I had previously surveyed, so I’m satisfied the change was a mistake. Unfortunately, the editor hasn’t been back to OpenStreetMap since I contacted them - perhaps I frightened them off, so I’ll fix them myself.

My methodology will be simple - if that person has a footway in their edit history with version greater than 1, I will check the history to see if it is one that I previously edited or that I am interested in, and then revert the highway type to the one it was previously set to.

NCN422 signs have appeared along Bath Road in Reading near Aldi and Lidl. Hopefully the section between Berkeley Avenue and Wokingham Borough, then the section between Wokingham centre and John Nike Way will follow soon.

As well as the previous entry, I’m also interested in the new development at Arborfield Green, together with the changes in Finchampstead - these should provide a link to Wokingham, and thus to the NCN422.

I’m currently working on corridors for walking and cycling:- 1. North/northwest of Peterborough, cycle routes to avoid the A15 2. Reading/Wokingham/Bracknell/Ascot, including the proposed route of the NCN422 3. Farnborough/Frimley/Camberley to Bagshot/Lightwater/Woking

I’ve got about 3 months worth of backlog data