Phantom Street

Hello,

I have ran on a street twice and walked on the same street now twice and it is not registering as completed. What is happening is that it is showing I had movement (walking or running) on the next street immediately north. I contacted Garmin on 6/5/2020 and cleared my old files from my watch. Also on 6/5/2020, I walked the street as a test and showed again that I walked on a different street immediately north. Is this a citystride or Garmin issue not registering? The phantom street is Cathedral Square in Brookfield, WI.

Thank you,
Stephen Pitsch

The first thing you need to do is compare the streets on the ground with the maps at OpenStreetMap (openstreetmap.org). It is possible that there is an error on the base map, used by Garmin and used by City Strides to generate nodes. If the map is incorrect on OpenStreetMap, then it will be wrong on your Garmin, and will be wrong here.

If it is wrong, then you’ll need to edit the map on OpenStreetMap. There’s a tutorial online, plus lots of help available. It’s not all that hard.

I generally find I’m making a correction to OpenStreetMap at least once a week. I live in a heavily wooded area, and the roads on the map are often far longer than the actual road. Toss into the mix the number of private roads, etc., and you’d be amazed at the corrections that need to be made. (I’ve also found errors on Google Maps, but I have no idea how to fix those.)

Once the map is correct on OpenStreetMap, two things will happen on City Strides. First, the map that’s displayed will be updated with your corrections. This happens relatively quickly. The City Strides site uses a different site to create the maps, and it gets updated often. Second, eventually the nodes that are impossible to reach will be removed from City Strides. However, for this process “eventually” is the important word. The creator of this site is working on a data update process. However, he hasn’t completed the coding for this yet. There have been other issues such as Strava’s insanely low API limit with higher priority.

Or, you can take the cop-out easy way out. Just mark the road as completed on City Strides, leaving the problem for the next runner. Once it’s marked as complete, you won’t see those ugly red nodes.

2 Likes

Thank you Fred. I checked OpenStreetMap and the street does exist and also exists in Google Maps. I have honestly walked or ran physically on the street three times and after I was finished it said that there was no movement on the street. Garmin told me to initiate the walk or run farther away so the signal catches and then it should pick up after clearing out the old files on the watch. I am open to suggestions.

I resolved the issue for the phantom street and realized that Open Street Maps had a street named twice and for Citystrides purposes one of the streets is actually someone’s driveway. I deleted the second street which is a driveway and renamed the correct street. I have ran on the correct street multiple times and it is not shown as complete. The streets are connected and called Cathedral Square and Bell Tower Ct in Brookfield, WI.

Thank you,

Stephen Pitsch

What’s the date of the last OSM update for that city?

The update was made on 10/8/2020. I ran the street for a second time on 10/10 and can confirm that the street (Fillmore Street) is in the middle of the town boundaries of Jerome.