katpatuka – I didn’t look into that specifically. Do you have reason to believe that this was mainly done by one user?

Not yet. I asked Grant a few times but he is pretty backed up on other OSM systems tasks. Once we get a new dump, I will start working on it.

Stereo, we do not currently use it for Scout, see https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/sidewalk#projects

Piskvor – indeed there may be false negatives (or positives depending on how you look at it) because of this. I used to map sidewalks as separate geometries, but I stopped doing it in favor of just mapping sidewalk tags. Some folks argue that separate geometries for sidewalks can help with specific use cases like wheelchair mapping. If anyone can explain to me how separate geometries would help those use cases in a way that sidewalk tags (perhaps augmented by more specific sidewalk:*:* tags) could not, I may change my mind again.

I used to be in the ‘map sidewalks separate’ camp. I don’t think it’s bad, but I am not convinced it’s always necessary either. Adding sidewalk=no|right|both|... is much quicker. How does mapping sidewalks as separate geometries aid wheelchair routing in ways that couldn’t be accomplished with the sidewalk tag?

Still tons of stuff to do. You can have your own MapRoulette challenge for it now. Add your city and get people to join!

OK, reading it again…It looks like it is clear. the wording no is preferred, despite this tag being in wide use appears in the description for the value none. So I edited this post and the original post to reflect that preference. I will also update the challenge and the sample config file in the github repo.

For now I will change it to none in the description and template files, as that value seems to have more traction than no.

Agreed on supporting one value and avoiding confusion. I followed the wiki recommendation which is at second glance arguably unclear. Under no it says * no is preferred, despite this tag being in wide use. So what does that mean? Is *no preferred, or none?

Zverik - not yet but it is at the top of our list for the next development cycle. This may be a couple of months away, though. Sorry.

Mike - I can help out with proper file conversion if you want. I realize PBF format can be tricky as an input file format. On the other hand it does help raise the barrier - this tool should be used with caution. Using PBF as input file format forces the user to think about the data in an OSM context.

Let me know how I can help.

k1wi - Not fixed yet. I’ll see what I can do. We’re all on holiday break now so it will be 2016 for sure though.

anewuser1: I’ll look into HTTPS download. As a workaround, you can use the web site for now..

MikeN, Clifford - I will be looking forward to looking at your data together to see if Cygnus can help.

Hi Jorge - no it’s not open source (yet..). I am working to get to a point where we can do that. The engine relies on an internal, proprietary SDK. For now (to also answer Mikel’s question) I plan to do a series of more in depth articles that explain in more detail what happens behind the scenes.

If you have a specific use case you would want help with, I would be happy to discuss it!

It would be interesting to see what the value of mapping really is. A marketplace like you suggest might make that visible if it gets enough traction. Do it!

Rob - that is a very valid question. You are correct, MapRoulette encourages remote / armchair mapping, which is why we need to be very careful about what good and appropriate MapRoulette challenges are. I believe very strongly in MapRoulette as a tool to encourage remote participation. In fact, it was when I first moved to the U.S. and saw the vast amount of work that needed to be done to clean up and update imported TIGER data, that I first got the idea for MapRoulette.

In this particular example, we can rely on the TIGER (US Census basemap) overlay to retrieve the names:

But you are right, wherever we cannot fall back on reference data like TIGER in the US, a ‘missing names’ challenge would be a really bad MapRoulette challenge. So thanks for pointing that out.

Making MapRoulette into a field tool that can be used on mobile devices is high on my wish list. I would be very excited to get some help in that area :)

Welcome Andy! Let me know if you have any questions. I am curious to hear what you think about the data quality in the Dallas metro. What are you specifically interested in mapping?

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Great initiative! We should talk on Skype soon. I would absolutely love to help.