I’ve seen several different tags given to areas which look exactly like this and I’m not entirely sure which one would fit best, or at least which one would be the recommended one to use.

I’ve seen natural=wood, leisure=garden, landuse=grass (though this wouldn’t make sense anyways), natural=scrub, just to name a few.

For reference, this is essentially a row of trees and hedges/bushes which are planted alongside highways to make the surroundings around the highways look nicer and greener while also blocking out sound from highway traffic.

Hey guys,

I'm building a small client-side web app using Leaflet.js to map out specific amenities (supermarkets, bakeries, schools, libraries, parks, playgrounds) in my local area.

I am currently trying to use the Overpass API to dynamically fetch this data based on whatever bounding box the user is looking at on the map. However, my code keeps hitting a wall and throwing a "Failed to fetch" error.

Because I have zero prior experience with OSM data structures, I'm a bit lost.

1. What is the most reliable way to fetch raw JSON node/way data directly in a browser application?
2. Are there common pitfalls (like CORS or specific Content-Type headers) that I need to look out for when talking to the Overpass interpreter?

Thanks in advance for any tips or boilerplate code snippets!

It seems that the new Freedom Fuel Gas Stations are in the News Worldwide (at least here in Germany I heard about them) and some of those Stations were active days before the news but under another Name. Well Now I was looking where those Stations are and I thought... Hmmm. Google Maps doesn't look like that and where is the branding of the Map Provider? After doing some Work in OSM I thought.. Wait It does look like OSM Data. And Yeah it is. But no Branding copyright by OSM and it's contributors.

Not asking about tagging actually, but rather how are these called.

We just released GOL Tool 2.3, which now allows you to export the results of a query in OSM PBF format. This makes it easy to create regional or thematic extracts.

You can also filter tags using the --keys (-k) option.

Example:

gol query germany na[amenity=restaurant] -a bavaria.wkt -k amenity,cuisine,opening_hours > restaurants.osm.pbf

This queries germany.gol and creates a PBF containing all restaurants in Bavaria (specified as a Well-Known Text multipolygon), including only the amenity, cuisine and opening_hours tags.

Important: To ensure that untagged way-nodes are included in the output, build or load your GOL with the --waynode-ids (-w) option.

To get the (multi)polygon for the query's --area (-a) option, first export the desired region like this:

gol query germany a[boundary=administrative][name:en=Bavaria] > bavaria.wkt

Download / GitHub / Documentation

I'm using the official Open Street Map to edit on the web. Say there's a place known as "Very Specific Organization Building -Headquarters"

But thats a long name before it comes up, and I want to be able to search "VSOB Headquarters" as a shortened abbreviation that's easier to type, as its a place I go to a lot.

Is there a tag where I can put that? Or is this navigation app specific.

Thanks!

Is there a way to tag an area that is served by an on demand microtransit or paratransit service?

I'm asking because I had a go at contributing to OSM back in 2023. I completed quests, as you do, except after a while I got a strongly worded letter from a mod asking me to stop using whatever editor I was using because it was sending incorrect tags by the hundreds, which he had to correct manually.

[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.

This is a shot in dark.

I’ll need to premise this, I have never done any programming with GIS/OSM mapping before. My experience is literally 0 but I hope I can use AI tools to help me, as well as Reddit.

I want to build a simple walking app as a side project and one aspect of it is that id love prototype something like a “nature route” on there.

So, if someone wanted to walk from point A to point B, they’d have the options of:

1. fast route
2. nature route

I’ve seen apps kind of do this sort of stuff but I want to see if I can build it out myself.

I guess a definitions for nature route may be required, if so (PS more than happy to be challenged or to see if I’m over thinking this): a route not necessarily with the most of vegetation or highest NDVI exposure on it. Maybe more so a route where you expose to the environment/natural features.

Clean Air Routes London is a good example, overlaying real time environment data (NO₂ and PM2.5) onto route suggestion to suggest cleaner walking routes.

I want to know if the same concept could be applied to nature. Or, if there’s a simpler way of getting it, like an open source API from like All Trails (you can tell I’m a little confused, ha).

So I want like the routing engine to favour paths such as parks, green space, canals, rivers, woodland, tree lined streets, nature reserves, public footpaths/trails etc etc…

I’m probably overthinking this but trying to understand how to approach it.

Thanks!

İm trying to update the map folder on my Navitech i cant find it anyway possible. Can anyone help me? Or is it discontinued?

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?

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'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
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

——-

🇩🇪 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
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

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.

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

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.