We are using an app (Bryx 911) that uses Open Street Maps as the mapping and routing. Unfortunately a good bit of it is wrong and that can greatly affect our emergency response when we use the app for responding to 911 calls. Is there any way to get update based on our GIS data? If we tried to fix everything that is wrong it would be very time consuming? Has anyone experienced this with the system?
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Yes, fixing all the problems and missing objects requires significant effort, that is why these issues are present.
Anyone is welcome to help improving OpenStreetMap data, though note Organised Editing Guidelines - OpenStreetMap Wiki if it would involve hiring people
You can also use Notes - OpenStreetMap Wiki for major missing/bad data, but note that these are also processed by volunteers and fixing data directly is more effective if possible.
yes, several times I needed to map data I wanted to use as it was not there yet or was wrong
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Welcome to OpenStreetMap!
First, I would be very wary of using OSM for a 911 system as anyone can edit OSM. For example, if I wanted to commit a crime at a certain address I could go into OSM and delete that address in the days before the planned crime, thus possibly delaying a response.
Second, have you verified that Bryx 911 is using a reasonably up-to-date copy of OSM? OSM is continually updated and some of the issues you are seeing may already have been solved.
Finally, as mentioned above, anyone can edit OSM, this includes you. By following the right procedure, you can import your GIS data to OSM. The process is spelled out here: Import/Guidelines - OpenStreetMap Wiki
Out of curiosity, what specific types of data are wrong? Addresses? Street locations? Street names?
Mike,
Bryx 911 is our Station Alerting system that provides routing information for the incident to our crews in the station. We did confirm Bryx 911 uses OSM and updates their mapping as often as the system is updated. Our issue is we have certain routes via emergency access gates that only our apparatus respond through that do not appear on the OSM. We would like to display to provide our GIS layers which include the locations of emergency access gates to provide our personnel with the correct routing. I am assuming however an upload such as that would then be visible to all users.
This is unlikely (but possible) as OSM updates are published every minute. It would be good to know how often they actually update their data, but given their response, it probably isn’t the main problem here.
Are the roads and gates in question in OSM or simply not tagged correctly (note that tagging in OSM is kind of like attributes in GIS)? Generally in OSM such gates would be tagged as access=private and, perhaps, emergency=yes.
Does Bryx 911 correctly interpret OSM tagging? For example, when routing emergency responders, a router should assume that they can go on private roads and through private gates. Of course if the road in question doesn’t exist at all in OSM, there is no way for the router to compensate for that.
Yes, all data in the OSM database is available to everyone. If you do choose to “upload” the data to OSM you must follow the import guidelines as cited previously. You are of course free to individually edit the gates in OSM.
I hope this helps
Mike
well, this a tricky topic: at the end of route this should be fine but trying to take shortcut in the middle of route across city is unlikely to work out well and taking more regular way may be better (the same applies to ability to ignore oneway, this is useful to do only in relatively rare cases)
on the other hand, ability to use busways is often far more useful…
Perhaps its worth a couple of OSMers, yourself, and some people from “Bryx 911” getting together to investigate an example of the problem? I’d imagine that might go something like this:
- (You) here’s a route that is ignored
- (Osmers, after updating OSM to add any missing data and emergency tags) OK, try that
- (Bryx 911) OK, but we’re ignoring that route because of [technical reason related to OSM tags].
- (Osmers) OK, so your router also needs to be able to route along X, and Y, and Z…
- (etc.)
It’s likely to be an iterative process as there may be several issues to deal with. The stripy elephant in the room is that some parts of the US still have old TIGER data that doesn’t necessarily match the current state.
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This can be taken care of by the router assigning an appropriate cost (in this case in terms of time) to going through an emergency gate. There may be cases where taking a shortcut in the middle of the city is the best, and most appropriate route, for example, if normal routes are impassible due to flooding, down trees, washed-out bridges, etc.
Having said that, my main point is that the primary issue may lie not with OSM data, but with the application (Bryx 911). We really need some more information and some examples of where the optimal route was not produced.
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What is being discussed here is a customer (end-user) of Bryx 911 (a commercial product based on OSM data, apparently) wants accurate data in said OSM data and have found a use-case (theirs) which doesn’t work reliably to their satisfaction. There is an entire datachain and toolchain here, including older TIGER data and some things which have been mentioned and others, not.
One party, Bryx 911, isn’t a party to this discussion, which would indeed, likely become iterative (excellent description of this possibility, Andy!) were it to become fruitful. All of the pieces to make this (the desired fire gate routing) work together are here and possible, but it isn’t some hand-waving and wishful thining, it is getting the right people together asking the right questions and finding a solution cycle that delivers the improvements sought. Iteratively, most likely.
Much of what is going on here are that assumptions are often made, due to the nature of “well, this is what it looks like to me (parochially, locally, from my perspective)” while OSM data are general and an app (Bryx 911) has a particularly engineered function. Just a little bit “off” in how these gears mesh, and you’ve got a fair bit of effort ahead to tune things up so they’re working to everybody’s satisfaction. Do-able, yes, a bit of effort, yes.
Edit: So, Christopher O, welcome. And yes, the “back and forth” data chase (between updating versions of OSM data that get progressively closer and closer to your desired solutions) is certainly possible. Especially in a small(er) area, something the size of a fire district, say. It would be a moderate effort to do this “update project,” but it could be created as a task or sprint. Even gamefication tools like MapRoulette could be used (OSM has other, internal tasking managers, too…) to achieve the final result. However (speaking from personal experience), well-designing and setting up the “task” in one of these systems takes some careful instructions, time and effort.
It’s perfectly fine to map gates and roads with private access. You can map gates as nodes on the private roads, and tag access=private on both. Then you can have your map display the private gates however you like, and route through private roads as desired.
However, if you want to make only a few specific gates show up, you’ll have to sign them in the real world as access gates for emergency vehicles and then tag them with emergency=designated in OSM. This step of changing things in the real world would be necessary, because OSM is a database of things that exist IRL and should not contain metadata (reference numbers etc) that only exists as part of third party software.