There’s a new system behind the scenes that imports all streets for all cities in a given country. Many of you have helped collect the details required to make this happen. There is still some expansion possible, if you would like to help out.
There’s a lot that is going to change, but very little of it is obvious by browsing the site. I also don’t want to surprise you by having your percentages change without knowing why. I’ll explain everything I can here, but if you still have questions please ask in the Support forum.
More Cities
We’re about to get way better coverage around the world. Another 50k cities are coming to CityStrides. The underlying system will also allow much easier expansion around the world.
Cleaner Street Data
One of the biggest issues in CityStrides has been the bad street data. Buildings, lakes, rivers, railroads - none of these are streets. The new data set completely cleans up this data, and removes the need for the Flagged Street system.
Contribute Back To The Mapping Community
OpenStreetMap is the source of data for CityStrides. If there’s anything incorrect/missing in CityStrides, we can fix that in OpenStreetMap. This way, the entire world benefits from our work.
Getting From Here To There
You will notice your progress percentages change when we switch over to the new data. This is because the underlying street/node data is being updated. The new percentages should be way more accurate.
If you notice missing cities or streets, please share this in the Support category in the forum. We’ll have to work together to update OpenStreetMap with more complete/accurate data.
The Cost Of This Project
It looks like the project will cost me about $750 to complete. These expenses come from:
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A large temporary database server
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A permanent Overpass server
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Four large temporary data processing servers
So the good news here is that most of this is a one-off cost. There’s only a little increase to the monthly operating costs. Unfortunately, this is all going onto my credit card as a personal expense.
If you love CityStrides, and have the means, it would be extremely helpful if you can Become A Supporter.