As the title states. I really want to like and use open source maps, but it seems that whatever database they are pulling from is pretty bad and incomplete overall. You also have to put the exact name, as it is in the system, otherwise it will not come up.
Just to use a really simple and well known example, after downloading the appropriate maps for this search, if I search for “the liberty bell”, the first four results are either roads or businesses near me, then the liberty bell museum in Allentown (which btw is permanently closed), and then the liberty bell center, then the liberty bell center again for some reason, and then finally the actual liberty bell itself. There are also suggestions down the list that no longer exist, such as the liberty bell pavilion. So this is clearly outdated data that is being used.
The suggested searches are also nonsense, only taking the last word into account, i.e suggesting “belles ave”, “bellgrove rd”, etc, rather than “liberty bell center”, which would be the most logical suggestion for that search.
Why is this so bad, and what needs to happen to make it better?
I use an Android App called Street Complete for this kind of stuff. It’s super quick long-pressing a spot, tapping “Add note” and writing something like “There’s a swing gate here”, pressing the “take photo” button and pressing “send” :)
Sometimes I suddenly find time to edit the map according to the note that I’ve made myself, but usually someone else is faster and the thing is marked properly on the map by the time I find time to do something more about it than add the note. And then I maybe react to someone else’s note to compensate for others having done stuff on my behalf :)
I’ve only used Street Complete to fill in boring details like accessibility or store hours, I never noticed I could add things from scratch. I’ll check it out!
There is a bit of an illogical way of adding objects: In the upper part of the screen you choose the type of data to show. If y you choose “Things”, you can choose from a limited subset of objects to add. Beware that the location of the object to add changes during the edit if you walk while adding it, so you often need to alter the location before pressing “send”!
You can add benches and street lights, for example, but not for example the kind of very tall and bright lights used at football fields. And you cannot add gates of any kind, which is a stupid restriction! But, there are a lot of benches and picnic tables I’ve added using street complete. It’s also a very good tool for marking stairs!
You choose the Surfaces type to view, then single tap on the road you want to edit, tap the three dots on the lower left and then choose “split way”, after which you can split the way into as many segments as needed. Split in both ends of the stairs, then return to normal mode “None” as the view, and answer the question about stairs :)
It is at the same time baffling how many things you can actually do with something that is claiming to be just a mobile game, and baffling what you cannot do with a tool that can actually do a lot of other stuff!
Like, the missing ability to add gates on the map.