<p>Quoting answer from <a href="https://github.com/woodpeck" class="user-mention">@woodpeck</a> via mailinglist:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>The data has undergone what is called a "map projection". If you don't<br>
want that, use the -l (ell) flag on osm2pgsql.</p>
</blockquote>

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