I’m currently mapping the village i live in (northern Germany). The building outlines and streets where already done by somebody else, so i mainly added the addresses to most buildings in my village and corrected some of the outlines. I did this with Organic Maps and later Vespucci.
Now my question: what other information is important enough to map?
I could go around and map every tree and specify the roof types for the buildings, but that would take ages and I think there are other details that are way more important to map for everyday openstreetmap users.
Is there some wiki page that lists the most important attributes that should be mapped? I searched on the OSM wiki but couldn’t find such a list.
Thanks in advance.
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Whatever you think. I met with mappers who only map rail and related stuff, others only different kind of pipes and manhole covers, some focus on electrical infrastructure, and street cabinets. Some people map anything that has a number or id. My favorite is street parking, lanes and sidewalks.
So map what you enjoy the most, this is not a job, it’s a hobby.
I would agree with most people. I think drinking fountains, public toilets, shelters and just general shops (edit:with opening hours a bonus) are the most useful. Buses is also pretty cool info to have directly there. You can check Streetcomplete to diversify your contributions with ease as well, including adding wheelchair accessibility.
You could also take photos for !Panoramax@sopuli.xyz too? Then others can use your photos to add more stuff or just see the photos of your area.
To me it would probably be “navigational” stuff, like bike/pedestrian crossings, sidewalks and bike paths, one-way streets and illegal turns etc. Plot some test routes for walking/biking/driving and verify the directions make sense. Then the main POIs if not already added, maybe some basic zoning? Also make sure that the features that already exist are properly tagged.
Anyway, I think you shouldn’t focus too much on what “you’re supposed to map” and just map the features that you find useful/interesting. There are a ton of ways OSM can be used, so start with your own use case, and by making it better for you you will make it better for everyone :)
Apart from the basic street layout, any information that’s worth having for everyday life, e.g. bus stops, benches, trash cans, etc.
Also, you could try StreetComplete and see what infos are missing elsewhere.
At a time where shopping local is more important than ever, when I take a walk and pass in front of businesses I take the time to ensure they are properly listed with their current business hours.
Public toilets are a good info
@shoki I would vote for things like Business and public utilities details are useful. e.g where is the post office, cafe, library, shop. Road information such as speed, direction, bus stops and bus services also very handy.
POIs POIs POIs, the shops and their opening hours are often outdated. Or you could micromap playgrounds.
Things that someone might look for: shops, restaurants, vending machines, benches, trashcans, water fountains.
To make the map appear a lot more beautiful and complete: map parks, playgrounds, dog parks, sports pitches, etc. as areas; map any fences, walls and gates around and within them. Lots of playgrounds are just mapped as nodes, so if you find such cases, fix them.
I think you should map what you enjoy mapping.
I map benches because I enjoy benches (444 mapped already.) and entrances that I use in my job.
Shops and services would be most useful along with bus stops and forest footpaths.
