Option to use OSM directly, zero delay on OSM updatesFORUMS HOME SEARCH FORUMS

Feature request:

Add an extra option to use OSM tiles directly from a main server to avoid lengthy delays on updates that is made to the OSM database.

Background:

I live in a rural area. The only map that works is OSM, and still I need to make contributions. Since I started using plotting sites I've done 400+ OSM contributions. I used www.gpsies.com before which got the OSM tiles directly, so if a road was missing, I logged in and added it via my OSM account, and then it became immediately available in gpsies so I could continue routing. The new roads could be auto-routed for a while though (as there was delay in the routing engine), but I can live with that. I've stopped used gpsies now since they got sold to AllTrails which lacks many of its features.

I read somewhere in the forum that your OSM is updated with a 3-14 day lag. Looking at some of my edits I've made in the past time many of them, older than 14 days, have still not appeared. This delay is just too much. I do understand though that the server you use is faster, so using OSM directly should only be a special case useful for users like me.

Forgot to add this comment, while this could be seen as a niche feature, I think it's worthwile to look at since 1) it should be easy to add AFAIK (just an extra server selection), and 2) such a feature make it more worthwhile for people to contribute to OSM which is a good thing for everyone in the route plotting business.

I don't think it's strictly necessary to have it in the route viewer, just in the route planner. Maybe a Premium feature only. Anyway, a really important one for me especially now when the OSM update delay seems to be rather long. I just looked up one feature (a rebuilt road in the city) I added 4 months ago in OSM in northern Sweden where I live, it has still not appeared on your OSM mirror.

Hi Anders,

We'll look into this as the map tiles should definitely be updated quite frequently, so it sounds like something isn't working somewhere. We wouldn't be able to source map tiles directly from OSM though as heavy use of OSM servers is forbidden by its Tile Usage Policy and could lead access being withdrawn with no notice.

John

Hi John,

ok, I understand. I thought it indeed could be a usage policy issue. Anyway, the faster updates the better :-), so thanks for looking into this.

I just flicked through all other maps and note that "cycle map", "paths map" and "transport map" (all renderings from OSM data) are actually fresher than the plain "OSM street map", so maybe it's just the OSM street map that have issues.

A quick update on this. It turns out that our OSM update process had stalled and was not applying updates as it should have been, so that would explain why you weren't seeing these flow through to plotaroute. We restarted the update process now. It will take a few days to catch up on the backlog but after this you should see OSM updates flow through to plotaroute within 3-4 days, usually quicker but it depends on how long a map tile has been cached for.

John

Hello, there seems to be issue with the plain "OSM street map" still, still 19 days later I haven't seen any updates in my local area. I look for a specific update that was introduced 6 april 2019, still not appearing. I does appear in the OSM Paths map, so the delay/stall seems to be specific to OSM street map.

Sorry, I thought we'd got that one sorted. We'll have another look into it.  Do you have a specific example you can give us to help us track down the problem?

John 

Here's an example, this dummy route is plotted around the cycling path around a roundabout. It exists in the OSM Paths map (and in the auto router) but not in the OSM plain map. That roundabout was added 6 april 2019.

https://www.plotaroute.com/route/914069

Thanks Anders. Just to let you know, we're working on this. We're having to rebuild our maps database.  I'll let you know when we've got it sorted.

John

OSM map updates should be working OK again now. I've had a look at the example you gave us Anders and can now see the roundabout that's been added. Hopefully you should see future updates come through within 3-4 days. We're also considering further investment in our map servers next year, so this may give us an opportunity to tighten these timescales further if and when we come to do that.

John

Yes I just tested, and a recent update I made came through in minutes! Thanks.