[OSM-talk] walking routes?

[Nick Whitelegg]

On Jan 22, 2008, at 13:07, grungelborz at arcor.de wrote:

>>> Nick Whitelegg wrote:
>>>
>>> TBH I would be fairly dubious about tagging any non-waymarked
>>> walks/cycle rides as routes, let alone ones of my own devising. This
>>> is "interpretation" which should be kept out of the largely 
>>> factual OSM.
>>
>> The data might not fit into the OSM but its still useful. Many 
>> websites live from
>> it, e.g. http://www.gps-tour.info/.
>>
>> IMO an easy way to maintain these routes would be to define special 
>> tags to the
>> OSM GPS traces database (http://openstreetmap.org/traces).
>>
>> E.g. in this case the tag could be 'recommended_walking_tour'.
>> The trace should contain only the tour and nothing else in this case.
>> A routing application that is aware of these tags could notify the 
>> user
>> about nearby recommended tours.

>But for that purpose, people can use gps-tour.info, right? OSM would 
>be interesting by allowing to present recommended walks, etc. as a 
>sequence of OSM ways. But this data probably would better go into a 
>separate database.

>I'm sure there's an opportunity for a nice project here: A walks/ 
>rides database that allows to construct such walks by selecting way 
>segments. Perhaps you could also offer a program that approximates 
>uploaded GPX tracks using existing ways, and offer the ability to 
>upload missing ways (or refer to OSM for the last part).

>I've also been thinking TrailRunner (even better: a free alternative) 
>should allow creating routes from OSM vector data.


>Cheers
>Rob

This looks like a cool idea. One thing that's kind of been on my mind for 
some time is a custom walkers' application which makes use of OSM data - 
there are many proprietary/shareware apps designed for walkers (route 
planning, 3D terrain preview etc) which use proprietary data sets. If 
there's interest I'd love to develop such an app... :-) (maybe not just 
yet as there are other things I need to get done, but as a project for the 
spring/summer....)

Nick