Continuing my pass on the NC concrete contractor nodes — heres what Ive done at the Matthews office for Local Concrete Contractor:

Continuing my pass on the NC concrete contractor nodes — heres what Ive done at the Mooresville office for Local Concrete Contractor:

Continuing my pass on the NC concrete contractor nodes — heres what Ive done at the Charlotte office for Local Concrete Contractor:

Ive been enriching the OpenStreetMap nodes for a small NC concrete contractor I work with — Local Concrete Contractor. They have 8 office locations across central and western North Carolina. Wanted to document the work so the next mapper has context.

Some street name are not confirmed. Still figure out.

A while back I posted here about SafeStreets, a free walkability and pedestrian-safety scorer that runs on OSM for any address, with Nimman Road in Chiang Mai as the example. Since then the product has moved on in two ways that I thought I can share: the scoring model and how it reads OSM changed. My focus has shifted to the US, so most of what follows is about that, with a short note on the international path at the end.

What changed in the product

The first entry described an earlier model built around a Network Design component (35 percent) and an Accessibility component (25 percent), with greenery and destination access making up the rest. The composite is now four components on a 0 to 10 scale:

Daily Reach:40 percent. Proximity-weighted access to 7 service categories.

Street Safety: 30 percent. Now its own first-class component, a weighted-OR of a crossings grid against pedestrian separation, plus a speed-exposure proxy.

Transit Reach:15 percent. GTFS via Transitland, OSM stops as fallback.

Walking Comfort:15 percent. Sentinel-2 canopy, terrain, air quality (the one non-OSM component).

There is also a new 6-tier label on top of the number, from Pedestrian-first down to Hostile, so the score reads in plain language rather than just a figure.

How it reads OSM now

The bigger change is mechanical. In the first entry every score hit live Overpass inside an 800m and 1,200m query, which was slow and broke whenever Overpass rate-limited me. US scoring is now Overpass-free. I precompute the street and safety metrics from a planet extract onto an H3 resolution-9 grid (roughly 26 million hexes covering the US, about 0.1 km2 each), paired with a local OSM POI layer of around 2 million amenities. A US score is now a hex lookup plus a POI merge, no live API call.

The OSM tags doing the work, by component:

Daily Reach: shop=, amenity=, leisure=, healthcare=, classified into the 7 categories and scored by distance to nearest plus density. Street Safety: highway=crossing and footway=crossing for crossing coverage, sidewalk=* and highway=footway for pedestrian separation, and highway=* class plus maxspeed for speed exposure. Pedestrianized ways (highway=pedestrian, living_street) score highest. Transit Reach: highway=bus_stop, railway=station/tram_stop, public_transport=platform where GTFS is thin.

So OSM is still the backbone for everything except comfort. The precompute moved the reading from request-time to build-time.

The international path-Briefly

International addresses, including Southeast Asia, still go through live Overpass with an Overture POI backfill. Same tags and model, read live rather than from the precomputed grid.

A note on limits

The precompute is a snapshot, so a US crossing you tag today does not move the score until I rebuild the grid. And at res-9 the safety signal is per-hex, not per-point, so it answers “is this a walkable area” rather than door-level precision. Where sidewalks and crossings are tagged, the score tracks reality closely; where they are not, Street Safety leans on road class and understates well-mapped quiet streets. sidewalk=, crossing=, and lit=* on ways remain the tags that most directly move a score.

If a US street you know well scores in a way that feels off, that mismatch is the feedback I am looking for. None of this works without OSM. Thank you all.

I’m deeply impressed by Openstreetmap. And by some very active contributors near Leuven. But, do we really need trams in our lovely tiny city?

CityMapper Externship 2026 UNGSC UN MAPPERS in Cameroon (first cohort)

If I’ve spare time to do this, I’ll do the update

I joined this site due to cycling. My tracking app (Strava) uses Open Street Maps. One of my cycling goals was to ride every street in my city, which is difficult enough without mapping errors. I kept seeing “roads” on this map that are in reality private driveways, “public” roads that are actually private, and some roads that exist in reality but aren’t on the map yet. (And in one case, a road on the map that has never existed in reality.)

I haven’t yet figured out how to accurately add missing roads, but I’m trying to make the map better by correcting these other features.

So this weekend (20/06 - 21/06) I went full mapper-mode around Chitlapakkam and Tambaram. Grabbed my phone, walked around the neighbourhood, spent hours on my laptop for mapping and ended up with 18 changesets and ~96 edits over two days.

Validating the work of others is important.
I was creative in doing just that.

completed survey of all speed limits in an area south of Palatine Road, east of Wilke, west of Arlington Heights Road and north of Euclid/Northwest Highway. Updated street data on the map.

Learning to Use OpenStreetMap Plugins in QGIS

This is a very simple idea: given a set of GPX traces for a hike you are planning to take, generate a file containing all the waypoints of interest within the area covered by the GPX traces.

Mapping Sitka is pretty much my identity. I was upset when someone reverted my work because honestly I’ve been working every waking hour for a few months now. It was good though because I needed to step back and not take it too seriously. I’ve had some manic episodes late in life and they unlocked some anger I’m not familiar with. It was actually impressive how mad I got. Anyway, what are these diaries for if not a super personal post? Stay mappy people

Earlier today I had to check an alarm on the servers. The alarm was for a non-issue, but I happened to notice a momentary delay to replication across multiple services and I wanted to investigate.

The original work Tout savoir sur la license ODbL : la licence dOpenStreetMap pour cartographier en commun was written in French in 2024 and updated in 2026 by the Fédération des Pros dOSM, a French organization that brings together various companie…

Waiting for someone to do Portland on OHM. About 90% of the people reading this will go “What is Open Historical Map!?”. It’s sadly never used… I wish it was updated more often…

State of the Map US 2026 Presented by OpenStreetMap US was this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. As any good breakfast lover, I tried to seek out the best breakfast food in the area of Capitol Square. Heres my thoughts:

I was stay on baltimore 7.5 years, l never used this page before, l am thinking about visiters coming country and trying to do bad orientation on board, not all of them but looking real bad, if you tryed those kind of orientation, on board or maps, why are they coming or using, or doing this map work, who needed any way, most of to page attaching other countrys web pages, because of all of to line going, some of them top to sky, other one down to ocien or sea eternet cables, l dont know who doing this, but if you wants to do tbose kind of orientations dont go outside and dont yelled to govenments stop to war, because, that kind of orientations starting to war all the time, hosbital, sociel servises, metro stations, sky modules all of them attached this, so any body gone a be horrible life in jail, they can keeped that orientaion, if some body rusdian ukrainan chine greece turkey iran arabia england all of them, they can found you right of way, if you used some bodys identification or fake adreses no metter, sky ships keeping all of to information and reporting just a second, do more if you need, than whats gone a be hspened…thank you…

Area routing in Valhalla: comparing algorithms to cross open spaces

Please help me raise funds to purchase the missing sheets from the complete historical 1:50,000 topographic map series of Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia.

If you use the amazing better-osm-org browser extension/userscript to review changesets, you are probably familiar with its default red, green, and yellow diff highlighting.

As I had mentioned in my last post where I explain what they are, I had long planned to make a video about mapping historic lifting stones.

Supporting the training of new mappers in Cameroon: our first corporate sponsorship

[www.mapaedifi.eu] provides lists of buildings with architect=* tags, for several European countries : Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Portu…

Ive been working recently on a personal project to investigate how much of the
Overpass query language
could be implemented using a different back end database, namely the
QLever database.

This is a personal note so I remember the settings to use depending on my method of transportation:

Bicycle:

• Mode: 360 Timelapse Video
• Interval: 0.5 seconds
• Resolution: 5.6k
• Remember to point one camera to the right, the other to the left. Maximizes aerodynamics and captures better quality images of signs.

Walking:

• Mode: 360 Time Lapse Photo
• Interval: 2 seconds
• If photos appear too clustered, increase time of interval

Car:

• Mode: Standard Video
• Resolution 1080p or 4k
• Frame rate 30 fps for forward view
• Frame rate 60 fps for side view (to reduce motion blur)
• Field of view: Linear for side shots, Wide for more vertical coverage. Never use SuperView
• Horizon Leveling: Off
• Stabilization: Off or Standard. Can warp the images
• For side shots, best to angle 45 degrees for best of both worlds.

Hi folks! I’m up for election to HOT’s voting membership this year (thank you, Pete!). As a part of that process, I’m posting my answers to their prompting questions here on my OSM diary.

Adding Wikidata tags to all OSM features listed in Wikidata

Hotel where I got my iPhone 13

Ayubowan from Sri Lanka,

My name is Hasna from Sri Lanka, and I bring over 3.8 years of experience in OpenStreetMap (OSM) and humanitarian geospatial work. I began as a self-learner with limited engagement, but my journey has evolved into sustained, impact-driven contribution at both national and global levels.

In 2022, I joined UNOPS Sri Lanka, where I worked within capacity-building initiatives for civil society organizations. In this role, I actively promoted OpenStreetMap, open-source GIS, and humanitarian mapping through HOT. Through the UNOPS Vriddhi Project, I directly trained over 100 civil society partners, strengthening local mapping capacity and enabling wider adoption of geospatial tools in development work. This experience grounded my understanding of how open mapping translates into real-world community impact.

A defining milestone in my journey was attending State of the Map 2025 in Manila. This experience significantly reshaped my perspective on the global humanitarian mapping ecosystem. It allowed me to connect with experienced mappers, mentors, and contributors, and establish a strong professional network. Since then, my engagement with HOT has become more structured, consistent, and purpose-driven.

Currently, I serve as the Country Lead for Sri Lanka under WOM Asia Navigators, where I support community engagement and capacity development in open mapping. Over the past seven months, I have completed more than 190 HOT tasks across disaster preparedness, disaster response, and recovery operations, demonstrating sustained technical contribution in humanitarian contexts.

What does HOT mean to you? HOT represents a global humanitarian ecosystem that transforms geospatial data into life-saving action. To me, it is not just a platform, but a collaborative force of mappers, organizations, and communities working to ensure that vulnerable populations are visible, supported, and included in disaster preparedness and response systems.

How did you become involved with HOT? My deeper involvement began after State of the Map 2025, where I witnessed the real-world scale and impact of HOT’s work. This motivated me to move beyond passive learning into active contribution. Since then, I have consistently engaged with HOT learning resources, mapping projects, and working group discussions, steadily increasing my contributions to over 190 tasks within seven months.

Why do you want to become a voting member? I am seeking to become a HOT voting member because I am committed to moving from contributor to active decision-support within the organization. I strongly align with HOT’s mission and believe my experience in training, community engagement, and field-level mapping can contribute to its strategic direction. Becoming a voting member will allow me to: -Strengthen my engagement in governance and community representation -Contribute more intentionally to HOT’s sustainability and growth -Support inclusive participation from the Global South, particularly Sri Lanka and similar contexts

Can you share your involvement in HOT, mapping, and humanitarian response? I have contributed to multiple humanitarian mapping initiatives focused on disaster preparedness, resilience, and response, including: Mozambique TC GEZANI 26 Massinga 1 Priority Mapping Initiative, Ngwata Missing Buildings and Road Mapping for resilience and smart city development, United Nations for Somalia - CEEL GADDE: villages and barriers, Missing Maps: Buildings in Aweil Counties, South Sudan, Disaster Response in North Sumatera Indonesia, Building Mapping. These experiences have strengthened my technical consistency, attention to detail, and understanding of crisis-informed mapping workflows.

As a voting member, what do you see as your most important responsibility? My primary responsibility as a voting member would be to actively safeguard and strengthen the quality, integrity, and sustainability of HOT’s humanitarian mapping ecosystem. This includes ensuring that community contributions remain both scalable and reliable, while continuing to serve real-world humanitarian needs.

How do you plan to engage with HOT as a voting member? Are there specific working groups you’re interested in joining? As a voting member, I plan to engage through consistent contribution, mentorship, and active participation in community and technical discussions. I am particularly interested in the Community, Technology & Innovation, and Training Working Groups, as they align with my experience in capacity building, geospatial learning, and community empowerment.

What do you see as HOT’s greatest challenge, and how would you help address it? One of HOT’s most critical challenges is maintaining a balance between the scale of mapping contributions and the sustained quality and reliability of data, while ensuring long-term community engagement. I would contribute to addressing this by: -Strengthening structured training and mentorship for new mappers -Supporting community-led capacity building, especially in underrepresented regions -Promoting best practices in humanitarian mapping workflows -Encouraging sustained engagement rather than short-term participation Through these approaches, I aim to help strengthen both the quality and sustainability of HOT’s global mapping ecosystem.

Thanks for reading, Cheers

Introduction as HOT Voting Member Nominee

building=canteen denomination=akṣara-puruṣottama_darśana/viśiṣṭādvaita

Radio and communication towers made of wood are rare. Lists of such objects can be found on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_site#Wooden_structures , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_wooden_buildings_and_structures and https://en.

I don’t normally think about the Sun’s direction when I go out running. When it gets exceptionally hot in summer, I start to notice it and wonder if I can tune my early morning run routes to experience slightly less heat. In principle, that should be possible. The position of the Sun can be worked out with a Python script. Combined with the angle of the Sun in the sky and your heading, it will tell you if you are running straight into the Sun or if the Sun is behind you. My personal preference is running towards the sunrise. After sunrise, you can call OSRM to optimize around solar load, defined as a function of Sun azimuth, your heading, and Sun altitude. This is probably over-engineering for route planning, though. The solar load has no simple formula, and the effect of clouds or humidity is hard to account for. Just a basic knowledge of civil dawn, sunrise time, and sunrise direction is probably enough for everyday running. But back to route generation — if you can find a metric to optimize for, you can generate new routes you have not run before. It is hard to define route novelty, but something like sun direction is easier to work with. The end goal would be to create routes that are different from what you can discover by simply using your street sense.

From the very beginning of my OSM journey, I loved the idea of playground maps.
There are several reasons for this, but I won’t go into detail here.

Learning to use custom aerial imagery and create relationships in OpenStreetMap