[Talk-us] Fwd: USBRS WikiProject seeks volunteer mappers

[stevea]

Simon Poole writes:
(The approved USBRs in OSM could) provide some show casing of why OSM 
is better, instead of worse.

Thank you, Simon!  I'll even go one better than that:  "OSM might be 
the best data set in the world of national bicycle network routes, at 
least in the UK and the USA."

That might be true in other countries as well, I'm don't really have 
personal knowledge of that, but I think I can say that about the UK 
(thank you Simon, Sustrans, Andy, and countless others...) and I can 
say it about the USA, too (as of, but certainly not before! July of 
last year).

For example, take a look at this, the Lonvia renderer's "Waymarked 
Trails" map for bicycle routes:
http://cycling.waymarkedtrails.org/en/?zoom=5&lat=38.02101&lon=-87.78818&hill=0&route=1#

I'm especially proud of the correct tags on all the routes:  names, 
ref tags, notes, super-relations, etc.  That took some effort, 
coordination, understanding of OSM tenets and good old fashioned 
project management, ladies and gentlemen.  Sure, the last two routes 
of 10 in Washington (about 40% entered) and 50 in Ohio (about 60% 
entered) still have yet to be completed, EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE 
APPROVED LESS THAN A WEEK AGO!  (Sorry for shouting).  But this is 
maybe 6% to 7% "incomplete" out of 10,000 km or so of a national 
network.  Not bad, eh?  We can get there, and we large have, rather 
well (though there were some mistakes, they are now firmly in our 
past).

And while Simon says (heh!) that "(a couple hundred miles) could 
easily be surveyed by a dozen or two mappers without undue effort and 
completed in the upcoming months" he puts his finger right on it: 
that might be about the number of people who ARE involved in this 
WikiProject (true, many as widely-disdained "armchair mappers," 
rather than long-distance bicyclists), AND I think it could be done 
(mapped AND/OR bicycled) not in months, but in weeks, or even days 
(if just one or two people were to drink a few coffees).

This (OSM) is project which can, and often does, UNIFY us, not divide 
us.  Let's work together!

SteveA
California