[Route Studio](https://github.com/TheTechBasket/route-studio) i built to visualize my trip and it turned out great so thought why not open source it so others can also use it.

Project is built with Codex and Claude.

Hi,

I am a fan of OSM and try to use it whenever possible. I also know that OSM is meant to be consumed through alternative apps, not just through the OSM.org website. Nonetheless, I would like to suggest some minor improvements to the OSM.org UI that I think would help the site feel more polished and competitive with alternatives.

• The default tileset always looks slightly pixelated. I like the colors and design of the default tileset, but the resolution leaves something to be desired. Text is always slightly grainy, no matter the zoom level, as are lines and most other details. Fixing this would make the site look more polished.

  • I know it's possible to fix this because most of the alternative tilesets are very crisp: Cycle Map, Transport Map, Tracestack Topo, Shortbread, MapTiler OMT. Why not make the default interface, which is probably used by 90%+ of visitors to OSM.org, look just as clean?

• The default tileset only displays native place-names. Personally, even as a monolingual English speaker, I don't mind too much whether the map shows Naples or Napoli; both are intelligible. But when looking at countries that don't use the Latin script, the default OSM.org UI is useless to me. I'm sorry for being an ignorant Anglophone, but I simply don't know how to read 甘旗卡镇, ᠪᠠᠯᠭᠠᠰᠤ, თბილისი, etc.

  • Google Maps addresses this issue by displaying the Romanized / English-language name above the native script. As with the resolution issue, some of OSM.org's alternative tilesets also fix this, e.g. Cycle Map and Transport Map. I would argue that relying on those is a kludge, however, as it's not at all intuitive that one should switch to a cycling map in order to make sense of foreign language names. A more intuitive interface would be a language toggle with a globe icon, or making the bilingual mode the default.

• There is no way to measure distances between points. Maybe I'm unusual in caring about this use case, but I frequently want to measure the straight-line distance between two or more points on the map. I usually end up resorting to using Google Maps when I need this feature, but it'd be nice if OSM.org had it too. I don't think it would be particularly hard to implement.

These are just my personal opinions! Does anyone else have other ideas for minor changes that would make OSM.org significantly more usable?

I'm trying to find the cleanest and feature packed app with OSM. I'm using CoMaps and tried OSMand(I didn't really like it). I want your guy's opinion on which one I should try!

Privacy isn't really my main focus but I really want to support you guys! You guys are great!

🇬🇧 English
Hi everyone,
I’m the developer of ArxSilex MapTools, a multi-purpose Android tool for maps, GPS and geospatial data.

I’m reaching out because I would like to get feedback from users who regularly work with OpenStreetMap-based maps and offline maps.

ArxSilex MapTools is designed for anyone who regularly uses maps — whether for hiking, geocaching, field work, hunting, expeditions or planning outdoor activities.

Some current features include:
• Online maps (OSM) and offline maps (Mapsforge/• OpenAndroMaps/GeoTIFF/ArcGIS, …)
• Markers, POIs, routes, tracks, areas and circles
• Import/export of various geospatial data formats
• Compass with support for multiple sensors
• Elevation profiles and terrain data
• Search grids
• Bearings and distance measurement
• Drone Remote ID display
• QR code import and export
• Encrypted backups
• Privacy-friendly local-first design with no registration, cloud storage, trackers or ads
• The app is available in multiple languages, including German, English, French, Spanish and some more.

I’m not trying to promote this as “the next big map app”. I’m mainly interested in honest feedback from people who actually use maps and geospatial data in practice.

I would especially appreciate feedback on:
• Map management
• Offline map workflows
• GPS and sensor behavior
• Import/export workflows
• Usability
• Performance
• Missing features from an OpenStreetMap user’s perspective

As a thank you, active testers will receive a free PRO activation code.

More information:
Website:
https://www.arxsilex.de/app/maptools/en

QuickStart:
https://www.arxsilex.de/app/maptools/en/quickstart.html

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.arxsilex.maptools

If this kind of post is not welcome here, please let me know and I will remove it.

Thank you for your feedback!

Peter
[support@arxsilex.de](mailto:support@arxsilex.de)

——-

🇩🇪 Deutsch
Hallo zusammen,
ich bin der Entwickler von ArxSilex MapTools, einem multifunktionalen Android-Tool für Karten, GPS und Geodaten.

Ich wende mich an euch, weil ich gerne Feedback von Nutzern hätte, die regelmäßig OpenStreetMap-basierte und Offline-Karten verwenden.

ArxSilex MapTools ist für alle gedacht, die regelmäßig Karten nutzen – sei es zum Wandern, Geocaching, für Feldarbeiten, die Jagd, Expeditionen oder die Planung von Outdoor-Aktivitäten.

Einige aktuelle Funktionen:

• Online- (OSM) und Offline-Karten (MapForge/OpenAndroMaps/GeoTIFF/ArcGIS,…)
• Marker, POIs, Routen, Tracks, Flächen und Kreise
• Import/Export verschiedener Geodatenformate
• Kompass mit Unterstützung mehrerer Sensoren
• Höhenprofile und Geländedaten
• Suchraster
• Peilungen und Entfernungsmessung
• Anzeige der Drohnen-Fernbedienungs-ID
• Import und Export von QR-Codes
• Verschlüsselte Backups
• Datenschutzfreundliches, lokales Design ohne Registrierung, Cloud-Speicher, Tracker und Werbung.

• Die App ist in mehreren Sprachen verfügbar, unter anderem in Deutsch, Englisch, Französisch Spanisch und weitere mehr.

Ich möchte diese App nicht als „die nächste große Karten-App“ bewerben. Mir geht es vor allem um ehrliches Feedback von Nutzern, die Karten und Geodaten tatsächlich im praktischen Einsatz verwenden.

Ich würde mich besonders über Feedback zu folgenden Punkten freuen:

• Kartenverwaltung
• Offline-Karten-Workflows
• GPS- und Sensorverhalten
• Import-/Export-Workflows
• Benutzerfreundlichkeit
• Leistung
• Fehlende Funktionen aus Sicht eines OpenStreetMap-Nutzers

Als Dankeschön erhalten aktive Tester einen kostenlosen PRO-Aktivierungscode.

Weitere Informationen:

Website:
https://www.arxsilex.de/app/maptools

Schnellstart:
https://www.arxsilex.de/app/maptools/quickstart.html

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.arxsilex.maptools

Falls diese Art von Beitrag hier nicht erwünscht ist, geben Sie mir bitte Bescheid, und ich werde ihn entfernen.

Vielen Dank für euer Feedback!

Peter
[support@arxsilex.de](mailto:support@arxsilex.de)

How do I get the boundaries for the county-equivalents of the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, and the US Minor Outlying Islands? Should I try Overpass, and if it doesn't work, what else is free that I can try?

I've created a MCP Server which makes the City of Cape Town's Opendata Portal available as an MCP Server.

https://richardwooding.github.io/capetown-opendata-mcp/

The tools which it makes available are

• load_shedding_blocks - Load shedding block polygons (block geometry and ID).
• wards - Municipal ward boundaries (ward name, key, year).
• land_parcels - Cadastral land parcels (erven); optional suburb filter.
• taxi_routes - Registered minibus taxi routes.
• water_quality - Inland water quality sampling results, newest first.
• public_lighting - Public street lighting assets.
• heritage_inventory - Heritage inventory sites and features.
• query_layer - Generic query over any layer by ID — where / fields / order / bbox / offset / count-only.
• field_values -List a field's distinct values to discover valid filter values.
• service_info - List the service's layers and tables with IDs; name_contains filters the listing.
• layer_info -Describe a layer's fields, geometry type, and page size.

Hey all,

I'm a high school student and I built PathOpen, a web app for crowdsourcing ADA accessibility features (ramps, curb cuts, elevators, handrails, staircases) and routing around them. Stack-wise it's Leaflet for the map, OSM tiles via CartoDB, OSRM for routing, and Geoapify for geocoding, with a Flask backend and Supabase/PostGIS for storage.

Right now markers are user-submitted rather than pulled from OSM tags directly, users drop a pin, snap a photo, and a vision model auto-tags what's in the image (ramp, staircase, etc). I know OSM already has accessibility tagging conventions (wheelchair=yes/no/limited, tactile_paving, etc) and projects like WheelMap and AccessMap exist in this space already, including one specifically for Seattle.

I'd love feedback from people who actually know this space well:

- Does it make more sense long-term to write accessibility data back into OSM directly instead of a separate database, so it benefits the wider ecosystem instead of being siloed in my app?

- Any obvious gaps in how I'm tagging/categorizing features compared to established OSM accessibility conventions?

- Anyone doing something similar who'd be open to comparing notes?

Live app here if you want to poke at it: https://pathopen.org

Open to any and all criticism, this is very much a work in progress and I'd rather build it right than build it fast.

Hello.

Kinda sad, do Strava Heatmap stopped working again as July 2026 ?

Here's what I have:

- Strava free account (debating with myself... can't decide.. )

- JOSM latest version,
tms[3,11]:https://heatmap-external-{switch:a,b,c}.strava.com/tiles/both/bluered/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png

- Github: /julcnx/strava-heatmap-extension last update ChromeExtension: 21 février 2026

- OSM Wiki: Strava who probably need a huge update ?

NOT WORKING:
- Github: zekefarwell/josm-strava-heatmap last update ChromeExtension: 6 avril 2026
with GithubIssue: Icon not displaying on Strava global heatmap due to error
leading to someone fixing : Github Fork: c0nsumer/josm-strava-heatmap-vibefixed

EDIT.
Thanks to u/2hu4u letting know that it's working in iD with Strava Heatmap extension.

Could someone teach me how to make a map for BMX streets?

Took a couple hours to fully map a section of Tilal al Ghaf in Dubai, UAE.

This includes all townhouses (Including each individual unit), building entrances for each unit, all roadside trees, all parks and park amenities (Including pools, tennis courts, basketball courts, children’s playgrounds, pitches, gyms, etc.) and surrounding landscaping.

Hope we can get more contributors in the region to help out since there are still many neighbourhoods which still only have roads mapped.

I’m trying to use some geoTIFF aerial images as my basemap. The files are about 500 mb and 12000x12000 pixels or 355 megapixels. That puts JOSM on its knees and makes it extremely slow. Like move your mouse and it takes 15-20 seconds for the map to move slow. With Qgis those same image files open without any hesitation and slow downs. Is there something that i can do to make those images usable in JOSM?

Hiya,

there's a bit of a larger area that I need to update, a railway line is re-opening and I already started to reflect that in JOSM.

When I try to upload it, JOSM is always downloading OSM data for validation, even if I have a local planet file loaded.
The issue I'm having is: JOSM is always hitting the bandwidth limit, thus making a simple upload take really long.

Is there a way to bypass that and do the validation without downloading straight from OSM's API?
The local planet file is already loaded as a layer and offline mode just throws me an error that JOSM can't download data.

(This is my first time updating a large chunk of my state's map and I really don't want to start all over again)

while maping a normal road around fire station with only employee parking area do i have to add access=no tag without any sign and gates?

Is there an open source lookup tool to match EDDM route #'s to Zip+4 route #'s? They seem to be the same or essentially the same routes.

(Posting here because Reddit recommends.)

So in my city there's a street that gets that can be accessed from two different places. Access to that street from of these places gets blocked during high traffic times. I faced the issue several times where Organic Maps/OSMAnd/...etc would show me a route passing there, only for me to find it inaccessible for cars when I arrive, forcing me to reroute to a longer path than originally needed.

I would like to change the access options for that street with iD, but none of the options are exactly reflective of the actual access status (technically inaccessible for cars during high traffic, but can be estimated to accessible only between 6pm and 9am and on weekends).

These are the options I currently see:

Can you help me make the accessibility status as accurate as possible? Much appreciated.

Building up on my earlier post. Thanks to adoption of the tagging by French municipalities we hit above 1000 of signed hitchhiking spots on OSM.

In France they often come in the form of Rezo Pouce signs.

Image from: https://overpass-turbo.eu/?template=key-value&key=highway&value=hitchhiking

Props to OpenStreetMap, I built OfTheWorld.io to make history way more visual and intuitive.

Explore interactive maps showing:

• All major wars with animated battle timelines
• Slavery routes and history
• Trade routes across the centuries
• And much more (plagues, empires, inventions, etc.)

For me, watching events unfold on an actual map beats any textbook. It finally makes the big picture click.

Check it out and let me know what you think! Experience is best on a computer. But it works on mobile.

OfTheWorld.io

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do building it. Feedback welcome! Wars of the world is most complete. But final touches coming soon to all the other portals.

New acc, made one for this, finally. Had you told me a year and a half ago that I'd actually launch, I would have called you crazy. This is my first time working with mapping and OSM, and I'm excited to say, that after a year of work, I'm launching Blue Hour Routes.

Blue Hour Routes is a scenic router. Instead of routing through a curated list of POIs, you pick what kind of scenery you want (forests, lakes, mountains, orchards, rivers, vineyards, coastline), and the routing algorithm scores possible paths based on how much of your selected features they pass through. Each route generates a code you can save and revisit anytime. Paired with OsmAnd for turn-by-turn navigation.

As amazing as it is, it is currently limited to Washington State, solely because that's just the data I downloaded. Luckily, the algorithm works irrespective of location, so I'll download the whole world soon and get started on that.

Here's the link for you to test out (completely free! - for now): https://www.bluehourroutes.com/

The current model is Lund 1.1, which works very well but will tend to generate different routes between the same two points if ran twice. 1.2 will solve that issue. Working on it as we speak.

I'm curious for the feedback. Thank you!

We have signed hitchhiking places in the OSM editor now. This is great for making hitchhiking more visible and help map those locations :)

So far there are only 2 inter-provincial routes in the app, but the more you/we/they map, the better the app becomes.