Mapping and data optimization of routes and stops of the PumaKatari municipal transport, nearby pedestrian and cycling routes, in the city of La Paz, Bolivia

Over the past year, I made a lot of contributions to Reginas OSM. Since snow has made surveying difficult, I felt a retrospective on those contributions were a good idea.

In the ancient days, OSM was much simpler. You had the streets and roads.
A crossing was considered a barrier along the way for road users (i.e. cars), so one would place a node with where the crosswalk is located.

COLLABORATIVE MAPPING VOLUNTEERING AT THE SENDA VERDE WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

রাজশাহী জেলার বাগমারা উপজেলার যোগীপাড়া ইউনিয়নের কাতিলা গ্রামে অবস্থিত নাগা বাজার–মুলিভিটা সংযোগ সড়কটি মাঠপর্যায়ের তথ্য ও স্থানীয় জ্ঞানের ভিত্তিতে মানচিত্রে সংযোজন করা হয়েছে।

আজ আমি OpenStreetMap-এ নাগা বাজার এলাকায় “Naga Vila” নামে একটি আবাসিক বাড়ি যোগ করেছি।
লোকাল জ্ঞানের ভিত্তিতে building=house ট্যাগ ব্যবহার করে পয়েন্ট হিসেবে ম্যাপ করা হয়েছে।এতে এলাকার আবাসিক ম্যাপিং আরও সঠিক হবে।

tagging and list uncertainty

Last night, I added Arbela, MO, and some geometry in the immediate vicinity. It’s the next village west of Granger, MO.

Today, I did a quick walk for a GPS trace, and then I came home and added some more geometry around Arbela. Unfortunately, I managed to get JOSM into a bad state before uploading, and I decided to start this evening’s changes over again. Alas. It’s almost bedtime, but I was able to redo the buildings and the driveways I’d done before. The water will have to wait until tomorrow.

Merry Mapmas!

আজ OpenStreetMap-এ আমার একটি নতুন অবদান যোগ করেছি। নাগা বাজার এলাকায় অবস্থিত “Naga Bazar Shopping and Service Centre” মানচিত্রে যুক্ত করা হয়েছে। এই স্থাপনাটি স্থানীয়ভাবে পরিচিত একটি শপিং ও সেবা কেন্দ্র, যা আগে মানচিত্রে উল্লেখিত ছিল না।

এই তথ্যটি আমি স্থানীয় জ্ঞান ও পর্যবেক্ষণের ভিত্তিতে যোগ করেছি এবং ভবিষ্যতে আশপাশের অন্যান্য গুরুত্বপূর্ণ স্থান ও সড়কের তথ্য যাচাই করে ধাপে ধাপে যুক্ত করার পরিকল্পনা রয়েছে। অভিজ্ঞ ম্যাপারদের যেকোনো পরামর্শ বা সংশোধনকে স্বাগত জানাই।

Unsure about Cottage Grove Rd. Should i put the source:hgv tags or not? signs on left and far right Source list - ordinances - can’t find anything

We havent had a London pub meet-up in a while. I probably couldve organised something, but got waylaid by Dundee, and preparing a talk for Dundee, and recovering from all the excitement of Dundee.

Im kicking myself for not celebrating Mapmas, since I apparently signed up on December 1st. :) Alas.

Recently, I started adding a large number of roof:colour tags to buildings that had previously lacked this information. I started in Colorado Springs for no particular reason, but I plan to expand this activity further.

Bell Island, Newfoundland has now been practically fully mapped. There were some features that I was not able to fully map since it would have required local knowledge, however I’m happy with the extent of what was able to be mapped based off of satellite imagery alone.

With some reflection I think the scope of this project was quite large but still manageable since I didn’t put any strict timelines on myself. In the future I’ll likely choose slightly smaller scale projects where the whole thing can be wrapped up within a couple of months. In the interim I’ll probably map some of the smaller islets around Conception Bay.

Today is the first day of the AFRIGIST Alumni OSM TRAINING program. I serve as the assistance surveyor of the Redeemed Christiane Church of God

Today is the 1st day of AFRIGIST Alumni training,engaging in OpenStreeMap practical. I served as resource person along side with Unique Mappers

Today is the 1st day of AFRIGIST Alumni training,engaging in OpenStreeMap practical.
I served as resource person along side with Unique Mappers

What a treat -30.6743046,26.7295793
http://conville-farm.com/

It was a nice day. I think I just added more cameras. I also saw several cats, and a very excited dog who ran over to the fence to jump up and say hi. A nice day, indeed.

I also noticed that one of the house numbers on the north side of E Culver Ave seems to be out of order with the rest. The house numbers go: 537, 543, 555, 605, 569, 577. 605 is between 555 and 569, which doesn’t make sense. 618 is across the street, and starts the even-numbered 600 houses. Was it meant to maybe be 565 and some clerical error happened? Is it even a mistake at all or is this something deliberate? I have no idea, but it definitely threw me. I wonder if they struggle to receive packages.

I have to mapping projects I’m doing here. The first one, the one that has most of my focus is my home community of Fairview, California. The other is Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. For both projects I rely on a variety of tools:

• the Bing visual
• Google maps
• County GIS records

While Google has good data most of the time, I have spotted a couple dozen errors since I’ve started on these projects. When I can easily submit a correction to them, I do. When I can’t, I make sure my work better reflects what the county map tells me.

A few kilometers from the town of Luncavița in Tulcea County, tourists visiting the Măcin Mountains National Park can stop off in Cetățuia hamlet — a paradise for beekeepers who have brought bees to the linden forests (that define this hamlet) and fo…

নাগা বাজার — বীরকুৎসা সড়ক আমাদের দেখায় কীভাবে একটি ছোট স্থানীয় পথ থেকে বৃহৎ পরিবর্তন ও উন্নয়নের সম্ভাবনা তৈরি হতে পারে। এটি কেবল পথ নয়—এখানে মানুষের জীবিকা, সংস্কৃতি, অর্থনীতি ও দৈনন্দিন জীবনের রক্ষাকবচ লুকিয়ে আছে। সঠিক পরিকল্পনা, স্থায়ী রক্ষণাবেক্ষণ, স্থানীয় অংশগ্রহণ ও পরিবেশের সঙ্গে সমন্বয় রেখে উন্নয়ন করলে এই ৩ কিলোমিটার পথ পুরো এলাকাকে নতুনভাবে সংজ্ঞায়িত করতে পারে। রাষ্ট্রীয় তহবিল, স্থানীয় সরকার ও গৃহস্থালি উদ্যোগ মিলিয়ে এই সড়কটিকে শুধু চলার পথ না রেখে একটি স্থায়ী উন্নয়নের কাঁচা-সহজ রিংক হিসেবে গড়ে তোলা যেতে পারে—যা আগামী প্রজন্মের জন্য উন্নত সুযোগ ও জীবিকা তৈরি করবে।

Orange is pleasant to walk around. The houses are unique and interesting, the people are friendly, and sometimes there are dogs outside you can say hi to (and I say hi to every single one). Even in the quieter neighborhoods, its still a lively place.

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gpx desa terdampak

PDF Ukuran Kertas A-0

Google view

Current wiki guidance for tagging slipways (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:leisure=slipway) is as follows:

To edit an OpenStreetMap (OSM) diary entry, you must navigate to the specific post while logged into your account.

learn more about the OSM Diary here

I was a bit too sleepy to post last night, but I got coffee and wandered by Long Dog Coffee and Treats, a delightful dachshund-themed café (with treats for both two-legged and four-legged friends) because that POI was not on the map. :)

So as I was mapping some rooftop solar, I noticed that some of the houses were all offset from the Bing image data by the same amount. I’m pretty sure there’s a way to resolve this without turning my GPS on and driving around a bunch, but where’s the fun in that? I also wanted to play around with Go Map!! and get comfortable with uploading traces in general, so I turned on Go Map!!’s GPS and drove around a bunch while listening to a podcast. Seeing the GPS data later on in JOSM was neat! It was also a reminder that GPS has a sampling frequency, and moving in a car, even at 25 miles per hour, spreads those samples out.

I’m guessing this is an imagery offset problem (I think that’s usually more likely to be incorrect), but I want to be sure so the solar panels are correct. I have to dig in some more. I know there are various ways to do it, but I’m entirely too sleepy to figure them out right now, which means it is officially a tomorrow thing. :)

Edit: I got a brief second wind. I learned that there is an imagery offset database, although neither of the two options available helped in this instance. I also noticed that both Bing and ESRI imagery comport, so the buildings are offset by the same amount compared to both images.

I checked the history of one of the buildings, and it was created in 2018 from Bing imagery. I then checked the buildings against ESRI Clarity, and they match much better. Now it’s officially a tomorrow thing. ;)

I started mapping my community last month. Looking at how the map is filling in, I think I’m about 1/4 to a 1/3 done with getting Fairview on the map. I’m focusing on homes, property boundaries, trees, pools and other out buildings.

Tonight I also worked on sidewalks and crossings.

Was a map user with Mapinfo for years at work, and added Google Earth Pro to that skill set. AllTrails uses OSM for their base map. Recommended by Carey Spies.

Enjoying the learning process so far. Have edited the course cart path at the Grizzly. And have added the path/driveway to Dale Spies’ house.

Anhwwjhw

Last weekend I gave a talk about OpenStreetMap and biking at the Madison Bike Advocacy Meetup. This is a monthly meeting of people interested in biking and local bike advocacy.

আজ আমি OpenStreetMap-এ নাগা বাজার ব্রিজের অবস্থান এবং নাম সংযোজন করেছি। নাগা বাজার ব্রিজ স্থানীয়ভাবে পরিচিত একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ সেতু, যা নাগা বাজার এবং আশেপাশের এলাকা সংযোগে ব্যবহৃত হয়। সেতুটি একটি প্রধান স্থানীয় রাস্তা পারাপারের জন্য ব্যবহৃত হয় এবং এলাকাবাসীর দৈনন্দিন জীবনে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ভূমিকা রাখে।

আমি সঠিক অবস্থান নির্ধারণ করার জন্য স্থানীয় তথ্য ও GPS ব্যবহার করেছি। আশা করছি এই সংযোজন স্থানীয় মানচিত্রকে আরও তথ্যসমৃদ্ধ এবং ব্যবহারযোগ্য করবে।

Im finding it difficult to pick a particular mapping task to focus on, because even in my corner of Orange, there seems to be so much to do. For example, Ive noticed that the sidewalk ways sort of peter out a few blocks away from the Circle.

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RETEX: Encounters Along My Mapping Walks

(translation by ChatGpt)

to be continued, maybe:

• journal entry (upcoming): Existential Questions About My Encounter with Panoramax
• journal entry (upcoming): Existential Questions About OSM and the Wikimedia World
• journal entry (upcoming): My First Experiences With an RTK Rover and an RTK Base

My urban recycling trek is now complete (at least regarding the attempt to map all voluntary drop-off points in the GPS&O intercommunality). I still need to clear up some fixme tags. This journal entry isn’t about mapping information but simply about a few encounters I had during my walks. They are just brief flashes of emotion, smiles, or frustration.

To understand the atmosphere of these encounters, picture me as:

• 70 years old, usually in shorts (except below 11°C)
• with a backpack (20L)
• always carrying at least one hiking pole in one hand and a camera in the other
• sometimes with a pole sticking out of my backpack holding a GNSS antenna at head height

The Best of the Best: Hunting for AEDs

in a micro-crèche

2025-09-08 in Médan I’m looking for a micro-daycare facility to verify the presence of an AED (Osmose suggestion). I wander a bit around the assumed location at the end of a residential cul-de-sac and eventually identify the daycare. I hesitate to enter the garden and ring the doorbell when an educator opens a ground-floor window, leans out, and asks whether I’m looking for something and if she can help (a polite way of saying “we’re watching, please move along”).

We exchange a couple of rather friendly minutes during which I silently give up on asking whether I may come in to photograph the AED (didn’t seem very wise). Instead, I hand her my phone and ask if she can photograph the AED on their wall (at least we both know she will avoid putting any children in the frame).

A brief hesitation, a few back-and-forths between me (standing outside the window) and her supervisor… and she brings my phone back, with two photos of the AED and a big smile.

I think I brightened her day — she’s probably still talking about it…

in my train station

2025-09-08 in Villennes-sur-Seine I’m strolling along the platforms of my town’s train station searching for an outdoor AED that supposedly exists there. I don’t find it (found it fifteen days later on the other side of the station), stop by the exit in front of an outdoor wall sign reading “AED,” and grumble in my nonexistent beard: “What’s the point of putting up an AED sign if the device isn’t visible and accessible nearby? Pffff…”

A small voice behind me, from a 12- or 13-year-old leaning on his scooter:

• sir, do you need a defibrillator?
• Oh no, I just wanted to photograph it, everything is fine, thanks!
• because if you need one, there’s one across the square, on the library wall, on the right

So I met a kid (friendly sense of the word) who knows what a defibrillator is, knows where one is nearby, wonders if an adult next to him might need one, and immediately directs him to the closest!

Bravo, and thank you (to the kid and to his educators, parents and/or teachers). I wouldn’t have bet a cent on this kind of reaction at that age, and I walked away with a breath of hope about young people’s attention to others.

in a hypermarket

survey 2025-10-02 Buchelay I’m looking for an indoor AED indicated by Osmose in a hypermarket gallery. Not finding it, I ask a security guard if he knows where it is, making sure to say that there’s no emergency. He knows. Without hesitation, he takes me to it, leaves me in front of it, and returns to his security job (I wouldn’t swear he didn’t keep a cautious eye on what I was doing with “his” AED).

I take photos and notice a blinking orange light (later confirmed at home to be a routine maintenance indicator due within two months). Unsure, I try to find the guard again, but he’s gone, so I alert one of his colleagues. Far less receptive. Polite nod. Promise of action…

I left only moderately confident that anything would be done.

in a church

survey 2025-09-30 Mantes-la-Ville Osmose indicates an indoor AED in a church. I’m not Catholic, and rather non-practicing in my own religion, but I decide to enter while respecting the customs and expectations of the place. No AED visibly apparent, and I assume it may be in the back areas inaccessible to regular visitors. I’m about to leave when a man in a chasuble comes out from those back rooms and sits on one of the sparsely filled benches. I gently ask whether I may photograph the AED supposedly in his church. Slightly surprised look, then: “of course, why not?” and he returns to his meditations.

I wait a bit, thinking he might guide me there, but he doesn’t move, and I eventually figure that I should just leave.

At the back of the church, as I prepare to exit, a worshipper seated on a bench who had clearly observed my little dance — without understanding it — smiles and invites me to sit on one of the many empty benches. I decline and explain my search. Big smile, he stands up and shows me the AED, perfectly visible right next to the entrance. I still don’t know — and probably neither the worshipper nor the man in the chasuble knows — how I managed not to see it.

Photos, big smiles, silent nods of respect, and I left with both photo and geolocation.

But What Are You Doing? — and Various Questions

about my photos of garbage containers

survey 2025-07-04 Carrières-sous-Poissy I’m photographing a household waste drop-off container. An older neighborhood resident carrying several bags approaches to dispose of her load. I step aside so she doesn’t think I’m photographing her, then realize she may have trouble pressing the foot pedal used to open the container. So I return and press it for her. She didn’t seem to expect it. She thanked me quite naturally, then started a small conversation to ask what I was doing (besides pressing pedals). Attempts at explanation. Her biggest confusion: “but who do you work for?”

I definitely need to work on explaining the purpose and value of collaborative work for free and shared knowledge…

about my GNSS antenna

survey RTK 2025-10-10 Villennes My first mapping session with an RTK rover (quick outing at my town’s sports complex). I cross paths with three sports instructors on break, puzzled by the pole and antenna sticking out of my backpack. It does look a bit Martian (or at least alien — Mars not necessarily involved).

Short chat about OSM, its purpose, its free and collaborative nature. Small detour into RTK and its usefulness (beyond OSM).

I’m not sure my explanations about OSM or RTK left any lasting impression… but I tried. I wonder whether it would be useful to keep a few simple OSM flyers in my pockets for this kind of impromptu street-corner conversation.

And… I just checked the Wiki and found Category:Flyer, where I should be able to find something helpful (haven’t done it yet). Never underestimate the Wiki :)

Knowing When to Stop

Can I help you?

survey 2025-09-30 Magnanville The situation: slightly bent, leaning on my hiking pole, looking down at my smartphone to choose my next point to check/create… but standing at the edge of a pedestrian crossing with a red light on a busy avenue where pedestrians are rare.

“Do you need help crossing?” (a woman my age, full of kindness, probably thinking my hiking pole was a white cane).

I declined with many thanks but promised myself not to stop right at the edge of pedestrian crossings anymore (also remembering there are always drivers who stop the instant they see someone near a crosswalk).

Knock Knock Knock

survey 2025-12-08 Villennes-sur-Seine Stopped on a very narrow, rarely used sidewalk at the end of a bridge over the highway, trying to reposition the GNSS antenna poking out of my backpack behind my neck. Soft taps on my backpack, without a word: a woman I was blocking who hadn’t dared call out (maybe the antenna was intimidating :) ).

and others…

Little Free Libraries

During my outings, I map the little free libraries I encounter. With photos on Panoramax (and sometimes on Wikimedia Commons).

I was pleasantly surprised (2025-10-03) to receive a thank-you message from someone who built a website dedicated to little free libraries sourced from OpenStreetMap (with proper credits). His site can be seen as a thematic rendering application for OSM data. He promotes the idea that OSM data is free, ideally long-lasting, and updated through field surveys.

Nice…

a driver–cleaning-agent altercation

survey 2025-09-11 Mantes I’m walking on the sidewalk, looking for my next container to map. On the opposite side of the street, a verbal altercation between an irritable driver and a street-cleaning worker. From what I can gather, the driver seemed annoyed by the worker’s presence and activity (safety vest, broom…).

There was no physical violence, but I’m not particularly brave. I simply stopped, planted firmly on my two hiking poles, and watched the scene, camera in hand.

The argument slowed down, a glance exchanged between the driver and me (or perhaps my camera)… and the grumbler sped off loudly.

A final glance between the cleaning worker and me, a small smile and nod of solidarity, and we each returned to our tasks.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much…

a street-artist

I also map street-art murals I pass by, especially because the intercommunality sponsors around forty of them, so they’re quite common. I photograph them and upload the photos to Panoramax. When I tried uploading them to Wikimedia Commons, I realized that the licenses don’t allow it under current French law (we’ll have to wait for the death of the — usually young — artists plus 70 years, by which time the murals (and I) will be gone. These constraints also apply to Panoramax, of course).

Out of curiosity, I emailed one of the mural artists about this issue. His reply (quoted verbatim):

Good evening, To be honest, I can’t really answer you. My position and my opinion are that once a mural is in the street, it spreads and has “its own life”. The only thing is to credit the artist and maybe date it (year of creation). That’s it. In any case, well done for your initiative. If you have a link, don’t hesitate. Have a good evening

This doesn’t change the impossibility of publishing the photos (unless one could certify/authenticate this response… which would likely be more trouble for the artist than painting the mural). There is progress to be made regarding public artworks…

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These RETEX (feedback) journal entries reflect my beginner’s choices, hesitations, discoveries, and questions. These texts represent only my experience and are not Wiki entries. Some of these choices have been discussed on the France forum, but not all. I remain open to any comments and have no intention of giving recommendations here.

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It was a lovely day outside today. I added some fire hydrants along East Almond, and also adjusted the crossing at Almond and Center, which I believe must’ve been edited based on out-of-date aerial imagery. The previous nodes and ways specified unmarked, uncontrolled intersections for all but one crossing, which matches the existing Bing imagery. I walk through this area all the time, though, and the city installed more stop signs and painted the remaining three crossings with yellow ladder crosswalks some months back. So, I’ve updated the map to reflect this.

Some of the hydrants along (or just off of) Almond were Clow hydrants, as I’ve seen before, but instead of a more recognizable model number, these all just read “5” underneath “Clow”. A quick search didn’t turn up any “Clow 5” hydrants, although it is, admittedly, hard to Google, and I was outside on my phone when I searched.

That being said, I did another quick search just now on my computer, and I found a PDF that mentions a “Clow #5” hydrant. Mystery solved! I tagged these as “model: 5” at the time, so there’s nothing to do!

Manguinhos Bay, Armação dos Búzios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, viewed in the overpass turbo, filtering tag barrier=gate (red). Mapa data © OpenStreetMap contributors, Nov. 15, 2025.

New development completed and occupied.

Consists of:
1 - 7 Norman Close, ST. ALBANS, AL1 2DW
1 - 5 King Offa Terrace, Wallingford Walk, ST. ALBANS, AL1 2EL
18A - 18B Abbots Avenue West, ST. ALBANS, AL1 2EJ