OpenStreetMap
I can't make up my mind what the best way to map is. I started out working on my bike in blank areas I didn't know that well. I'd try to find roads that chopped the area in reasonable size chunks, then cycle a chunk at a time, load into josm, and check against yahoo that I hadn't completely missed anything.
Lately I've been trying to map the roads using the yahoo data first. I'm finding that that:
* massively reduces the time needed to get an initial idea of the road layout
* makes the process of following the roads massively more boring, and leads to me just noting road names and not riding down them if I can't see anything interesting. Which probably means I miss interesting hidden footpaths, etc.
Taking longer than needed seems silly, getting bored doing it even sillier (where other people have already done the roads from yahoo in an area I was going to map, I don't feel like cycling it at all - it's like the interesting bit's been done).
There must be some better way of combining the two than either of the above. What is it?
Discussion
Comment from Donald Allwright on 29 February 2008 at 16:47
One thing I've found is that there are a large number of hidden paths/footpaths/woodlands/lakes, some of which I've stumbled across while cycling/walking a route, others I've seen on the yahoo imagery. I think the thing that has worked well for me is to study the yahoo imagery and other maps of the area to look for likely interesting features before actually setting out, but not mapping them. You then have a good idea of what you might be looking for, and this has made things a lot more interesting for me. As well as finding the features you've seen you will also find other features you'd not spotted. You will find yourself doing lots of detours to figure out what that lump of the yahoo imagery really is for example.
When it comes to actually doing the map you then have the knowledge of exactly what there is in a particular location, and can do it all in one go, using the aerial imagery as a guide.
Comment from randomjunk on 29 February 2008 at 17:44
These days I've been mapping with my GPS and the "always turn left" philosophy (or turn right if you drive on the other side of the road), then using JOSM to enter the data, and finally opening Potlatch to enter area features, tweak roads where the GPS created artificial wiggle, correctly position POI, and other touch up stuff.
I used to print out imagery to take round with me, but it made it too boring and I started missing stuff, especially if the imagery was out of date.
Comment from fröstel on 1 March 2008 at 15:53
Since we don't have yahoo coverage here I use PD maps to sketch the road layout on some piece of paper. This I use for rough orientation and to write down street names and POIs when mapping. You could do the same with Yahoo. This method allows me to get a coverage beyond 95% in the first approach. Only someone living in that particular area/street would be able to fill in the information I missed.
Comment from 80n on 2 March 2008 at 11:09
I always use the turn-left method. Tracing from Yahoo! is boring whereas exploring by bike is always interesting.
I start off by looking at the current OSM map and plan out which area I'm going to cover. I then set out and when I get to my target area I'll start using the left-turn rule.
If I reach a major road that I know is they boundary of the target area then I'll break the left-turn rule. Sometimes though, I'll pick up a footpath or lane that leads me into a completely separate area. In that case if the new area is unmapped I'll just continue surveying the new area and leave the old area for another day.
On most expeditions I don't end up surveying the area that I planned to which is all part of the fun.
Recently I've started using a mobile phone that allows me to download OSM maps in the field. I use this from time-to-time to check that I haven't stumbled into an area that's already been mapped. As the unmapped stuff is starting to become a bit scarce around here this is becoming more and more important.
Comment from marinheiro on 2 March 2008 at 11:42
I'm glad it's not just me that gets bored following a pre-routed map. My compromise at the moment is to have a fairly close look at an area in yahoo before I do it, so I know where to expect most of the roads, and also where there are odd looking things that seem like they might be interesting to follow up on the ground - but not to take any printouts with me, so I'm mapping as if from scratch.
Footpaths generally seem to lead to the most interesting things, and also to mess up any pre-made plans most - you often end up somewhere you didn't expect to at all :-)
Comment from Richard on 3 March 2008 at 11:06
One of the benefits of having an OSM map on my eTrex is that, as 80n says, you can see what's been mapped already. Mapping in Worcester the other week, it was a lovely sense of achievement to join up with the previously mapped area...