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Comment by rmc | Hacker News Reader

Do you like trains? Train nerds have made a detailed map ( https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ )

There are a few local specific maps ( Here's one in Welsh https://openstreetmap.cymru/ )

Interested in what shops/venues are wheelchair accessible? Wheelmap has you covered https://wheelmap.org/map#/?zoom=14

Kurviger is a routing service for motorcyclists. Pick a point, select a direction, and a distance, and it'll generate a round trip that doesn't go on the same road twice, you can go direct, or sorta curvy, or very curvy roads. https://kurviger.de/en

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You mean few small (relatively) communities did this for themselves, because it was obvious no one will think about them and in most cases ordinary user doesn't care much about their input. I am talking about an average map user, globally. If you want global coverage and relying on people to input data, then good luck. I do really like the idea and I wish with all my heart that people would be that generous with their time and effort but we have to face the truth - people don't care, people want a working and complete service. Unless there is some automation in place and free data exchange OSM will never be first choice for general public. Idea is beautiful, execution... Well, Tokyo city, population goes in millions, buildings and addresses not available farther than few blocks away from the train stations. You can see roads but roads in Japan have no meaning. And yes, I could input my house (just 10 minutes from station, blank point on map) but sad truth is, I am unable to input all of them and as you can see - people don't care. They just use Google Maps.

> roads in Japan have no meaning.

I've never been to Japan. Can you elaborate?

I suspect they're referring to the Japanese addressing schem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_addressing_system

Means - if you have an address, road name or topography won't help you. Most roads don't have a name, anyways. Not sure about US but in EU it's pretty common that houses are bound to roads so the address encloses road name and house number on this road. In Japan it is different. City is divided in areas, which are divided into smaller areas, all the way down to the building. Even locals often don't know the layout and are unable to tell how to reach the house on next square just by looking at the address.

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