OpenStreetMap
Just found OSM the other week and after checking it out found an app for my Android. One problem I found is that the roads did not render in my town unless I was extremely zoomed in. Wondering why I started looking into the maps and found that I could sign up and edit the maps myself. So I did.
I have been updating the road types in Ft. Collins and Loveland Colorado to reflect the true priorities of the cities. I am a little aggravated that OSM uses UK standards but I think I can work with them. Just hope I don't tick anyone off while I update everything. But I think this will make the maps better and more functional for mobile devices.
Discussion
Comment from TomH on 6 April 2010 at 20:15
We don't use UK standards really - the names are influenced by UK names because that's where we started out but each country tends to develop it's own mapping from local road types to the different highway types.
Think of the various highway values simply as opaque tokens with a particular hierarchical order rather than trying to interpret the words directly and it will make more sense.
Comment from giggls on 6 April 2010 at 20:17
The reason for OSM using UK standards is simply the fact that th project has UK roots. British highway tagging is also somewhat alien over here in Germany :)
Comment from giggls on 6 April 2010 at 20:17
The reason for OSM using UK standards is simply the fact that the project has UK roots. British highway tagging is also somewhat alien over here in Germany :)
Comment from nsx2000 on 6 April 2010 at 21:12
Oh I see. That pretty much what I came to do was use the hierarchy and ignore the road labels. Thanks everyone! I'm going to have a lot of fun feeling useful while I continue to improve the maps in my local areas.
Comment from Vclaw on 6 April 2010 at 21:28
Have you seen the table for international equivalence at the bottom of this page: osm.wiki/Key:highway
It specifies what type of roads should have what tags for each country.
Comment from Richard on 6 April 2010 at 22:16
giggls - no, really, Tom's right, they're not UK standards. In the UK we tag non-primary A roads as "highway=primary" ;)
Comment from ColinMarquardt on 6 April 2010 at 22:38
In addition to what was said: welcome, and beware. "Beware" because you may soon find out that OSM is really addictive :)