Hello,
I use CityStrides a lot to run every street in my area, and I really like that the app encourages users to contribute to OpenStreetMap.
I think there’s another easy way to give back to OSM: syncing our activities as GPS traces to our OSM account.
GPS traces are useful to mappers: they help align imagery, check the geometry of streets and paths, and spot missing ways. And CityStrides users cover every single street, including small alleys and paths that are rarely recorded otherwise.
The OSM API already supports this (POST /api/0.6/gpx, OAuth 2 with the write_gpx scope), so the feature could look like this:
- Connect your OSM account in the settings (opt-in)
- Choose the trace visibility: private / trackable / public / identifiable
- Define a privacy zone: a circle around your home (configurable radius, e.g. 500 m to 2 km) where points are removed from the start and end of each trace before upload
- Optionally, upload past activities in bulk
I’d suggest “trackable” as the default: the trace stays anonymous (not linked to your username), but the points keep their order and timestamps, which gives mappers extra information such as direction and speed (see Visibility of GPS traces - OpenStreetMap Wiki).
About privacy: since trackable points are ordered and timestamped, the trips can be followed point by point. Many of our runs start from home, so without a privacy zone they would lead straight to our address. Trimming the start/end seems essential to me.
I know there’s a browser extension that displays the Strava heatmap in OSM editors, but I don’t think it’s a duplicate: the Strava heatmap is Strava’s own data, with restricted use, while OSM GPS traces are open data available to any editor and tool.
What do you think of this idea? Would “trackable” be a good default? And would a privacy zone like this be enough?