I’m a recreational hiker and OSM mapper. I use the Komoot app (which uses OSM) for orientation during my hikes and after my hikes I submit any corrections, new paths and roads that I find.
For this type of usage, it would be great if OSM had a heatmap generated from uploaded GPX traces, so I could easily determine which areas I haven’t explored yet.
Because such a feature does not exist (or I couldn’t find it) I have built my own with the help of AI. Given a list of GPX files, it will output a local HTML file where my personal heatmap is overlayed on top of OSM maps. This HTML file is intended only for my personal usage.
This has been working fine for the last few months, but yesterday I started getting files with a 403 error and a link to osm.wiki/Blocked
I realize now that the app AI built was naive, in the sense that it did not cache tiles locally. I intend to improve the app to add caching, but I have a few questions:
Is my intended use deemed acceptable? I’m not sure a local page will be able to fulfil the referer / user-agent requirements.
How can I unban my local page?
Could this feature be included in OSM editor so that I don’t have to build my own?
Over the past two years I have seen serveral apps or webservices offering what you’re describing so I don’t really see why you’d need to “build” your own.
Having typed that I also have to apologise that I can’t name any. Sorry.
Once I’ve identified that the issue was the lack of a referrer, I was able to fix the issue with my HTML page. Here’s how it looks, in case you’re curious. It makes it easy to see which areas I haven’t explored yet.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the OpenStreetMap GPS overlay. It renders all GPS traces uploaded to OSM. While not exactly a heatmap, it effectively becomes one. It also has the benefit that other contributors can use the data for mapping as well.
I try to record my trips when in a new part of my region. It’s pretty fun! (One may wish to put some effort into anonymizing their travel habits a bit, though…)
