Hello,
I am Samuel Deschamps-Berger, head of Geodata team of the french nav app Geovelo.
As we have more and more users coming from Belgium, we’ve made a presentation meeting with @Thierry1030 last year, but here I want to focus on our process with the Notes.
Who are we
Geovelo in a nutshell
- We are specialised in cycling navigation and data analysis to promote active mobility and support the ecological transition => Our mission
- Our app is free, add-free and use OSM data to to offer optimised itineraries (considering various factors, including the type of bicycle, user preferences, and safety). Currently around 2M downloads, mainly in western Europe.
- We collaborate with more than 60 authorities to analyse cycling data to assist municipalities in understanding cycling patterns, assessing infrastructure usage, and making informed decisions to enhance cycling networks. Our dashboards, Cycling Insights, provides insights into route popularity, road conditions, and areas needing improvement
Geovelo and OSM
OSM cycling data is one of the pillars of Geovelo’s business. It not only feeds our route planners to build the cycling network, but also serves as a repository for a wide range of processes, from development statistics to travel information. The validity, quality, consistency and completeness of this data are essential to the added value of Geovelo products.
We are therefore actively involved in the OSM community, the SOTM-fr, via the FPOsm (French professionnal of OSM)
Our Notes process
First of all, this process has been validated by the DWG since 2018.
Our app integrates a contribution too, enabling users to contribute on different themes, Cycling facilities missing, Mapping error, Pothole, Missing bike parking, Black spots, Road blocked, Street Works.
The categories “Mapping error”, “Missing bicycle facilities” and “Missing bicycle parking” create a note on OpenStreetMap and are processed by our team (support & cartographer).
All comments made on Geovelo, as well as those made directly on the same OpenStreetMap note, are synchronized, so that these reports can be tracked independently by Geovelo or OpenStreetMap. This also ensures total transparency with the OpenStreetMap community.
The application’s internal reporting tool encourages users to attach a photo and a description of the problem.
Contributions are then processed manually by us, within 2 months :
If the note includes personal information or seems too fanciful, we delete the contribution.
If the information is relevant, the OpenStreetMap data is modified.
If we lack information, we ask the original contributor for details. All note comments, whether made on the OpenStreetMap side or the Geovelo side, are forwarded by e-mail to the note creator.
If the user responds by e-mail to the Geovelo support, we receive their details and process the request, but their response is not displayed on the OSM note.
If the user replies using our websites, the reply is displayed on the OpenStreetMap note.
We then modify the OpenStreetMap data, and close the contribution on our systems, closing the OpenStreetMap note at the same time.
The “false positive” discussion
We know that some of the notes from this system can produce “false positive” which we strive to filter out quickly.
Here are our stats for year 2024 :
6 783 notes created with notes :
- 99.9% are closed,
- only 5 are waiting for an answer
So far, for 2025 :
2 051 notes :
- 74% are closed,
- 14 % are waiting for an anwser,
- 14 % have no dialogs
At the end, the notes that remains “visibles”, opened, are the top of an iceberg in which the vast majority has been processed by our team of cartographers (or also by other contributors, thank you very much).
That’s a lot of positive input for us (as humble gardeners of OSM bike data) and for all the other OSM contributors, and I remain convinced that most of these notes have a positive impact on the quality, resilience and modernity (in the sense of being as up-to-date as possible) of OSM data.
We’re keeping a close eye on all of this notes, and we have an alert system that prompts us to resolve any notes older than 2 months that have gone unanswered.
Here, for example, is the current status of the notes generated on our system (you’ll notice that we’re not quite up to date with our 2-month policy, as it remains a cumbersome and time-consuming process to reply to all users, and we’re a little reluctant to close the notes, which would result in a loss of information… 
):
We’re well aware of the need to manage these notes, and we’ve set up all these quality processes in such a way to minimize the impact on contributors who don’t want to have to deal with these returns.
For all these reasons, we are pushing new devs on the app, to a system where sending the alert makes the user more responsible (confirmation popup, request for additional information following the type of alert, mandatory picture for OSM related notes…). These functionnality will probably be shipped during the summer.
I look forward to hearing from you and assure you that we are devoting all our energy to the success of the OSM project and to the satisfaction of all contributors and cyclists 
Sincerely,