The basic idea of the app is that cyclist record their bike rides through the city and accelerometer data is used to report dangerous situations (e.g. a car crossing a cycle lane without regards for the cyclists). It turns out that this accelerometer data can also be used to check the cycle path quality. Some cities respond well to the idea while others just ignore the problem
[0]: https://www.mcc.tu-berlin.de/menue/forschung/projekte/simra/...
Is there something like an Open Routing project where this dynamic data would make more sense than in OSM?
There were two issues: 1) It was way too early for this idea as the devices that had the HW for it were rather rare 2) I had no killer app that would entice people to install and run the app. There were no app-taxi companies at the time and just telling people that "please download and open that app when you are driving to help the local municipality fix the roads" wasn't really going to fly
I'd still love to work on that idea though.. one day :)
The problem is that potholes do not exists because cities do not know where they are. They exist because of lack of resources or priorities.
Thats one of the big issues with OSM though, they have an attitude of "Thats not my problem, it should go in another dataset" but then no one actually has an alternative place to put it so users just miss out.
The idea, in my words, is to have a standard on how to link between layers: how to merge them, so to say.
That way, a routing app for a car would only need the roads and their features layers. But the search engine for tourists needs the poi layer and not all the road details.
A 'live' layer for e.g. traffic density could then be a neat commercial product for OSM consumers. But without standards to link your layer to, say, the OSM streets, it is almost impossible to offer and process such a layer.