[Talk-GB] New Tool: Linear High Street Maps

[Robert Whittaker (OSM lists)]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2022 at 20:06, Robert Whittaker (OSM lists)
<robert.whittaker+osm at gmail.com> wrote:
> This is what I've come up with:
> https://osm.mathmos.net/linear/
>
> Further details of what it does can be found on that page. I've been
> testing it myself for a while. If anyone else would like to try it out
> on a high street near them and provide some feedback, then please let
> me know, and I can add some streets for you.

Many thanks to those who suggested streets for me to add. I think I've
added some for everyone now. In response to the issues and suggestions
so far:

* Suggestion to add a PDF output option -- It might be nice, but I
don't really have the ability to produce PDFs automatically in the way
that would be needed. I think printing the web output works ok. (For
some reason, Firefox's print output seems to position the markers on
the centreline and the POIs with different scales, but otherwise the
ordering and relative positions are correct. Firefox can also
annoyingly cut text in half across a page break. But other than that
the printing seems ok.)

* Suggestion to add a JSON output option -- this might be more doable.
Currently the tool stores the data internally in something that has a
JSON structure before it writes the HTML file. It probably wouldn't be
too difficult to save that to a file too, and provide a link. What
you'd get in the file would be the raw data behind the HTML file, e.g.
POI name, type, OSM ID, distance along street, lat, lon, website, FHRS
ID (if defined). Would that be useful? I'm not sure exactly what the
use-case might be though...

* Report of a missing POI -- The case Andy Mabbett highlighted was
because the centroid of the OSM object is further from the street
centreline than the default 50m. This can be customised on a per
street basis, so I've increased it for that street to capture that
POI.

* Include Side Streets on the map -- Yes, I'd really like to be able
to do this. But I'm not sure exactly how to make it work. I can
probably determine the node where a side street meets the main road,
and use that to determine the distance along the street. But for side
roads that come off at an angle, that might put it out of place
relative to the POIs that are further back.

* Suggestion to include a Tooltip on "null nodes" (Andy Mabbett) -- I
presume this is referring to the points that have a little house
symbol, indicating there's an address with no POI tags. If so, I've
now added a tooltip to them.

If anyone else wants me to add a street, do let me know. And don't be
afraid to click the buttons to update the OSM data on existing streets
-- it's all processed automatically.

Best wishes,

Robert.

-- 
Robert Whittaker