OpenGeofiction
When I contribute to OSM one of the tasks I like to do is updating the transport data for a few cities in the UK. This is shown on the Transport Layer which shows bus routes and gives rendering priority to public transport infrastructure.
I don’t know how feasible it is to bring this feature into OGF? It would be nice to be able to add bus routes and have them render on the map.
Discussion
Comment from Yuanls on 19 March 2016 at 16:09
Interesting idea… I never knew such a feature existed on OSM but it would certainly be nice to have it.
Comment from Leowezy on 19 March 2016 at 16:44
This would be… amazing. Could an Admin share some insight about whether that’s actually doable or whether there are strong reasons against it?
Comment from joschi81 on 19 March 2016 at 19:31
I agree, having a transport layer in OGF would be great. If we had one, I would start making bus and railway routes in OGF.
There are two transport layers that I know: Transport Map and ÖPNV-Karte
Both have advantages and disadvantages. I like ÖPNV Layer more, but there the problem is that station names often do appear only in very high zoom levels or not at all.
I started searching for integration possibilities. It seems that the stylesheet for Transport Map ist not shared openly (as it says here: osm.wiki/Transport_Map), so usage might be quite complicated - or we simply have to ask Andy Allan, the author, if he can give it to us. For ÖPNV-Karte I didn’t find any hints about usage on other servers on the respective OSM Wiki page, but as there’s a list of other sites using it (at the bottom), I think it might be possible.
Once we found a layer that we can use, it’s Thilo who must say if we can do it or not - he’s the expert in OGF server questions.
Best regards joschi81
Comment from PortCal on 20 March 2016 at 15:46
Indeed! That would be a bit of a game changer. Until now, there are many options for countries who rely heavily on road traffic by car, but this addition would be a great for countries that rely more on public transit.
Sadly, Transport Map seems to be property of ThunderForest, a platform that creates many of these map layers including OpenCycleMap. There comes a price with it when you stay under the 150,000 tiles a month. But since we probably use more than that, you should pay for it. Maybe there is something that can be worked out since this counts as a hobby project.
The more interesting is ÖPNV-Karte, which is much more advanced and detailed compared to Transport Map. But as joschi81 already mentioned, the visibility of station and stop names is definitely not optimal. Question indeed is if creator Melchior Moos wants to share his stylesheet, but it would be great if something like this could be included to the existing layers of OGF.
And maybe there are other map layers out there. But for now, it’s still a nice wish.
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 20 March 2016 at 18:27
This sounds like something that could perhaps be done as a modified version of the Histor layer, perhaps? It already emphasizes rail and subway stations, perhaps bus transport could be added in? I don’t know much though, just a thought.