Open US GPS Data?

tobiasly writes "I read an article today about a map error on the popular Garmin GPS devices which often leads to truckers in a particular town becoming trapped. From my own experience, every electronic map I've ever seen (Google, Mapquest, my Mio GPS) has the layout of my neighborhood completely and frustratingly wrong. A quick search turned up only one open-source mapping project, but it's for New Zealand only. Why are there no comparable projects in the U.S. or elsewhere? Obviously such a project would need a good peer-review/moderation/trust system but I'd gladly put in the time necessary to drive around town with my GPS in "tracking" mode, then upload, tag, and verify my local data. Has anyone with more technical knowledge in maps and auto-routing looked more into this? Are there technical limitations to such a project? Should the government subsidize a project to create open, free, up-to-date electronic maps? Surely there is a public benefit available from such a project."

Comments

open street map?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

Re:open street map?

[TheRaven64]

Being able to distinguish a bike path from a highway is significant Are you looking at the same OpenStreetMap as me? I just looked up the area around my house on OSM and Google Maps. OSM has more accurate mapping of the extents of the park (Google Maps is just plain wrong here). It also shows footpaths through the park (as dotted lines - Google doesn't show them at all) and indicates the different road types correctly (Google uses nonstandard colouring for roads) and shows roads inside the university campus, where Google just shows a grey blob. OSM also shows the hospitals and carparks correctly (sadly not the pubs). When it comes to road names, both have some that the other lacks (neither has complete coverage, but both have all of the major ones).

Re:open street map?

[ageforce_]

I could help that project by uploading my route tracks but what if I use mapsource (garmin software) to look up the road name am I infringing on something?

Yes. Unfortunately you are not allowed to do that. Map-vendors are protecting themselves against copying by deliberately introducing errors. See for example http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Copyright_Easter_Eggs

Re:open street map?

[budgenator]

Street names in the US are assigned by the government and the government can't own a copyright in the US. All most all of those maps have errors and they have a lot of the same errors because they are based on the TIGER, Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system, database. The TIGER database is maintained by the U.S. Census and while they are huge, you can have a lot of fun with them especially when you mix in the Perl module Geo::Coder::US and GMT, Generic Mapping Tool. The TIGER is a database of any known and and a huge number of interpolated data points, for example my house is listed as a known point with it's "official" latitude and longitude, two blocks down is another known point and every house in between is estimated. One thing you quickly notice when playing with the database is that roads often have multiple "official" name, Roads may "officialy" exist but not physically exists and roads may physically exist with out "officially" existing. Roads can even meander and move, especially dirt fire-roads and trails in the woods.

Re:open street map?

[Andrew Allan]

Bike paths? We go one better - we can make dedicated cycle maps based on OpenStreetMap data since we can put anything we like in the database, and render our own tiles using any cartography we can think of. See for example http://www.gravitystorm.co.uk/osm/ - zoom in on London to have a look at cycle networks, bike shops, contours and all manner of customisations for cyclists.

There's so much more potential to OpenStreetMap than just what's on the front page of the website.

Re:open street map?

[Richard Fairhurst]

Sure, you can import traces directly to the map.

Upload your trace, click "edit" next to it, and it'll open in Potlatch (the Flash-based editor - disclaimer, I wrote it :) ). Wait for it to appear then click the "Track" button to convert it to vectors that you can tag up, split and otherwise edit. It even runs a simplification algorithm (Douglas-Peucker) over the track so that you don't upload too many intermediate points.

Re:TomTom MapShare

[Laughing Pigeon]

Try TomTom MapShare.

Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with an "open source project". It is more like:

1. Make something that is so-so.

2. Profit!

3. Let the people who pay a lot of money for this so-so product do work for You without paying them for it. These users will take Your product from the so-so stadium and turn it into a good product.

4. Even more Profit! without any costs.

Reminds me a bit of cddb... What the OP wants is something like Freedb.

Re:Frustrating

[Kagura]

Unfortunately the same bad data keeps getting recycled everywhere, because companies are too lazy to verify things.

I think you are underestimating just how many roads there are in the US.

Source: National Highway System (United States)
The National Highway System (NHS) of the United States comprises approximately 160,000 miles (256,000 kilometers) of roadway, including the Interstate Highway System as well as other roads, which are important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility.

Further down in the same article:
The 160,000 miles of NHS include only 4% of the nation's roads, but they carry more than 40% of all highway traffic, 75% of heavy truck traffic, and 90% of tourist traffic.

That's a lot of roads. Stupid lazy companies... :)

Mapshare?

[Zerbey]

My TomTom device has mapshare built in, I'd be astonished if Garmin did not. I've made dozens of map corrections (mostly silly stuff like incorrect street names) and they seem to update the maps often. My neighbourhood has been around for a while so no problems with the street layout here. I believe TomTom use Teradata maps whereas most other GPS systems use a different company.

I would love to see an open mapping project though.

Re:That's a pretty big job

[fireboy1919]

I work at a GIS company.
Keep in mind that there's USGS, and that's not the only source of public maps (though that particular source isn't really focused on making navigation easier).

Most states are now working on providing a unified system for people to put their map info into (currently the best source of maps is counties and property appraisers - both of which can easily be mandated to upload their data if it doesn't cost them much).

So give it time. In the US this will become something provided as a government service, and the only people selling things will be the ones writing software that analyzes the data.

Re:Government Maps - of course

[Trailer Trash]

Yes, and TIGER is put together by the USGS, and it already *is* the "open source" data that the geniuses here are talking about. If you find an error, alert the USGS. I've done it myself - call their number and ask.

Now, as for the fantasy of people driving around with a gps attached to their car (ha ha, isn't that stupid!), um, oh:

http://www.navteq.com/about/whatis_difference.html

"NAVTEQ digital map data is built on the roads of the world. Over seven hundred NAVTEQ field researchers from approximately 168 offices drive millions of kilometers of the road network each year. To provide uniformity and maximize precision each team works to a single global specification. And each team has state-of-the-art equipment, including our proprietary GPS-based collection technology and GWS software.

These field teams are constantly verifying and updating the database, not only in terms of road geometry, but also in details. Each team finds and records up to 260 attributes--everything from addresses and road signs to turn restrictions--for each segment of road. The result is the NAVTEQ difference: digital map data that is precise, robust and multifaceted."

There's no pretense; Navteq has people driving around, with gps's, verifying speed limits, road conditions, etc. That's why companies like Google and Yahoo buy their data. Before you act like an ass, you might want to do some rudimentary fact-checking...

Open Source UK GPS Data

[killthebunny]

We have been collecting GPS positions at 10 second intervals since we began operations in London in 2004 (we're a courier company with a technology twist). We have collected 173 million positions on a 24/7 basis (growing by about 1 million per day) across our bicycle, motorbike, and van fleet. We have been donating to OpenStreetMap for years and have released our data for noncommercial use via a public API http://api.ecourier.co.uk/ under a CC license. Have fun!

Fixing errors on mapping sites

[halfabee]

Please forgive the slightly off-topic post...

Two of the biggest map data providers are Navteq and TeleAtlas. Each company has a section on their website where you can report errors in their maps.

Since they will need to review your submission and mapping sites like Google Maps and Mapquest only update their map data a couple times a year, it will be a while before your correction goes public (if ever).

No? There are commercial applications...

[Lord Satri]

I disagree. OSM is very useful in many areas, including where it is hard to find maps (try Baghdad for example). With the recent addition of TIGER data for the whole U.S., OSM became useful even in the U.S.

this project is lllloooooonnnnggg ways off from being useful everywhere This is obviously not true when considering there have been commercial applications of OSM for a long time (Isle of Wight - October 2006). See also this related wrap-up entry.

I am amongst the ones who believe we're only seeing the beginning of OSM everywhere. Contrary to your comment, I believe it is happening and will not take that long to reach some level of overall maturity. As to why is doesn't need an army of volunteers? Because, as done with the TIGER dataset, datasets are directly piped into OSM, as done in the Netherlands last year.

Prior art

[goodmanj]

Should the government subsidize a project to create open, free, up-to-date electronic maps? Surely there is a public benefit available from such a project."

This is a great idea. We could have some federal government institution which deals with lots of maps anyway take the initiative and create digitized map data for the whole country, using information from USGS quads. For "fact checking", they could mail out the map data to every municipality in the country, who would make corrections which would be incorporated into the system. The data would be publicly available from the government for free, to be used by open-source or commercial makers of maps and map tools.

Congrats! You've just re-invented TIGER, run by the U.S. Census Bureau. If you use map software, it probably uses TIGER data. If the data in your town is inaccurate, it's because your local government sucks.

Re:Frustrating

[rdawson]

I had cartography friend tell me that often map errors were introduced intentionally as a form of copyright. A mapmaker inserts a bogus item, street, landmark etc. into the map as a watermark to detect copies of his work.

TigerData et al

[chelanfarsight]

1. I use TigerData as a GIS professional and frankly its often crap. It was a good start for a rushed product in order to launch a project, but I would not now nor would I ever rely on its accuracy without checking it. The TigerData for my area regularly has roads going off the sides of mountains, roads where there have never been roads, etc. Also, the TigerData for my area has not been updated since it was released almost 8 years ago.
2. As for "driving around" it would depend upon how accurate the device is. The local utility company I work closely with spent 5,000$ just on the handheld to receive subcentimeter readings and about 20,000$ on the base station to accompany it. Your typical yellow DeLorme unit is great for driving around but it is not a data collection unit I would use when building maps. Depending upon satellite coverage for your area (weather, tree cover, geography, the placement of the 3 satellites needed to position accurately) your store bought unit could be as much as 100ft or more off your actual location and rarely closer than 5ft. Again depending upon coverage and the device. Then add the need for regular updates and mapping changes.
3. An open source mapping project would be great, but it is currently rather expensive to actually collect and process the data needed to build accurate maps. A terrific source of addressing and centerline information is your local E911 Board. At least in my part of the world they do much of the fire district, centerline, and, of course, addressing for mapping.

Of course the map is wrong...

[Frugatti]

Of course your map is wrong; you don't live on an Interstate. A few points to make on the digital mapping companies responsible for all the maps, update cycles and TIGER. And some bias, I was a former employee of one of the digital mapping companies. In the US (And globally) There are two companies that are responsible for all the digital maps Tele Atlas (Owned by TomTom) and Navteq (Owned by Nokia). If you look at any GPS device or online map site you will see a copyright from one or both companies. Their business is driven by getting people from point A to Point B the fastest i.e. by routing you to nearest highway and having you drive on it for the longest amount of time possible. The main focus is the US highway system: Interstates, US Highways, State Highways, Regional, County and Municipal Routes and the major metropolitan areas. If you don't live in the metro areas there is very little business need for correcting the errors in your locality. Why fix the streets in Stowe, VT (pop 6,000) when many more people will be served if the streets and addresses were updated in Cary, NC (pop 130,000 metro area of Raleigh, NC)? Each company works on a quarterly update cycle where a new version of their mapping database is available for purchase every 90 days or so. Some customers get the quarterly updates some get annual updates. The GPS units and online mapping sites are only as good as the currency of their maps. Make sure you update you maps every time an update comes out. There is always construction and changes in the road system and old maps will not reflect the newer changes. Just because Google Maps says the copyright is 2008 doesn't mean the map has been updated recently. I know when I was working for the mapping company we were working on a huge project for a car company that would be taking the mapping database produced in Fall 06 and using it for the navigation systems in their 2008 cars. If you do have a specific problem go right to the source to get it fixed Navteq map reporter or Tele Atlas Map Insight. The US Gov't does have a free nationwide map you can use TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) Produced by the Census Bureau. When was the last Census done? 8 years ago? Yea that gives you an idea of how accurate the TIGER map is. TIGER was made for government applications showing very accurate municipal boundaries and topology of streets. To get an open source Map project going you will need a good sized server, Volunteers in just about every municipality, good database software that can hold every thing you ever wanted to know about streets (name, address, one way, truck and vehicle restrictions, routing info, Points of Interest, zip code, real time traffic data, gated communities, municipal boundaries, state locality, ect...) a great set of possionally accurate aerially imagery (preferable 10m acct or less) for alignment of streets, and did I mention a large army of helpers in every municipality. Just make sure you get the newest maps updates for your navigation device and go directly to the source for map fixes: Navteq map reporter or Tele Atlas Map Insight.

Re:Sometimes they're easy to spot...

[TooMuchToDo]

Link for the lazy:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Dummy1456&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=32.80241,75.146484&ie=UTF8&ll=52.784492,-1.615934&spn=0.012225,0.036693&z=15