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Who Makes MapQuest's Maps?
carpoolio writes "TechTV has an interesting story about the company that builds the mapping technology behind popular map services like Mapquest. The company, Navigation Technologies, is decidedly low-tech in its approach to making its maps: two people in a car drive around endlessly, inputting street information and landmarks into databases. Navtech's map databases are used in everything from Garmin GPS units to Alpine in-dash auto navigation systems. So next time you turn the wrong way down a one-way street, know that there are real people behind the controls."
I worked at a company that was going to do vehicle tracking using GPS and those road map CDs you see at the computer store. We bought several of them from different companies. What we found was that they are full of mistakes. I believe that most of the data for these comes from a company called DeLorme (sp?). Unfortunately, it seems to have been compiled from obsolete government records. Something to keep in mind is you're planning a trip with these.
When all else fails, run.
It surprises me that they didn't use the TIGER data, available from the US Census Bureau.
Klynas Engineering makes a great product called Streets-On-A-Disk that covers any mapping need you might have. I used it as the mapping backend for a custom automatic vehicle location package I wrote. The software has a nifty API interface for external control and works great. The tech support rocks too - Scott, the president of the company and the guy who wrote the program, has provided me with tons of useful info. I have no interest in the company, I'm just a very satisfied customer.
I see my shadow changing, stretching up and over me...
NavTech just makes a map database, the path plotting algorithm doesn't come from them. That's why mapquest and yahoo will give you different results.
The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
I've had much better luck with MS MapPoint than ANY online service. The driving directions and printed map quality are excellent. I moved to NC from TX a year and a half ago and its been a real lifesaver even with local directions. I'd highly recommend paying for it than using any free online service; haven't gotten lost once!
We've already paid for that. The U.S. Census Bureau's Tiger map database. You can get the files on CD or DVD, or via ftp. You'll need GIS software. Try GRASS.
See what I've been reading.
"Tiger" data, by the US Census, has tons of free and open data for anyone to use. The accuracy isn't great a lot of the time, but then again, a lot of companies use this data....
http://tiger.census.gov
isn't that information already required to be public?
however, i know from my own county (middle of nowhere colorado) that the maps are seldomly updated in digital format -- my girlfriend (IT manager for the county) was updating 20-year-old maps, putting the incremental changes back into the database. they were planning on printing new maps for surveyors, etc., and hadn't done it recently (20 years.) although the information is publicly available (and the paper maps are up to date,) there's no guarantee it's available digitally, or digitally & correctly. then again, most of this information was about property ownership and boundaries -- maybe they keep the road information more up to date. (i highly doubt it.) i know
the city disagrees with the sign on my street about where i live, exactly -- someone driving around would find information that doesn't match information given by the city/county, but might be more useful to help you navigate. (the UPS/Fedex people get a bit confused when you give them one address and they have the other one available to them in their mapping system.)
from what i understand, information of this sort is kept using fairly standard software like ESRI ArcGIS (unless it's just in the "road guy"'s head, as it is for us most of the time,) so most counties would have very similar (or identical) database layouts. shouldn't be too hard to coordinate. getting them to -send- you updates might take some convincing though, or even to make the updates digital.
but then, we have, what, less than a dozen paved roads in the county? =)
The company didn't do well financially (which is why i'm not working there anymore), but the models can still be viewed. Check them out:
A presentation of just about every model we did (Helsinki, Tokyo, London, Bremen).
Helsinki, more images of Helsinki model.
London, a small part of London (images and video)
Virtual Kainuu, a huge rural area model created from existing map data (VRML, video and images). In finnish, but I think you'll manage.