Hi!

OpenStreetMap is a map that anyone can edit and anyone can freely reuse. It has a huge ecosystem, and can thus be a bit confusing to edit or to work with.

I thought that having a weekly thread to ask all beginner questions would be nice for everyone interested, so - go for it!

If you know the answer to a question, please answer (so that I don’t have to answer everything).

  • puddlexplorer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Hello! I was editing my city, and I noticed that the satellite images are outdated (several months, almost a year). I would like to add some things, such as bike lanes and pedestrian crossings (zebra crossings). Should I make edits on an outdated map, or should I wait for updated images?

    • pietervdvn@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      That really depends on the situation.

      Some possible approaches:

      • Have a look on mapillary, they are a streetview-platform where you can also upload pictures to. Sometimes they have up-to-date images
      • Zebra crossings and cyclepaths don’t change every year, so I guess it is not that bad? Unless you know major reconstructions have been done
      • Go out and survey instead (also see the first bullet point)
      • Ask other mappers in your city what they think.
    • CaldeiraG@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I gotta work with 5-year old satellite images in Portugal x) but it’s not too bad if you have a great knowledge of the city you’re editing in. Surveying would be the best course of action

    • une_abeille@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      That doesn’t sound too old to me! The satellite images in my area are from 2020. There have been some infrastructure changes since then, but in general construction takes a while so a few months shouldn’t change much. If you’re working in an area you know, as another commenter mentioned, you’ll be fine working from this imagery.

      Also, unless you know there is new imagery coming, I don’t see any point in waiting because for all you know none will come for a year or more!