Did you hear about PostPass? It’s a new experimental project. It’s like Overpass, but with PostgreSQL/PostGIS! You can run SQL queries on OSM data.
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I would completely agree that engaging with users on the scope of OSM and the main website is a good thing to do, I’m just not convinced this is a good way to do that.
Which brings me to my on topic “one feature you’d love to see or improved in the OpenStreetMap”: after 20 odd years or so, add text to the welcome popup to explain the purpose and scope of the website. I would note that I don’t believe this is a simple task, but that is why the CWG should think about it.
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@amapanda_ᚐᚋᚐᚅᚇᚐ Yes, I do. I’ve already submitted the issue: Violation of the GeoJSON specification in the server response · Issue #11 · woodpeck/postpass · GitHub. Having side community projects is fine, but some functionality should be part of the core. 
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Another thing I want to suggest is to
Bring the Segments data type back
Rationale
As of now, a Way is simply an ordered set of Nodes. The difference between a Way and a Relations, which is an ordered set of other elements, is not obvious. A Way is a distinct type of relation.
If we start with the assumption that a Way is a Relation, then we move on to the next point. What do Segments have to do with it?
Segments can be:
- Regular – consists of two points: “start” and “end.”
- Arcs – consist of three points: “start,” “intermediate,” and “end.” (re https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22791951/algorithm-to-find-an-arc-its-center-radius-and-angles-given-3-points)
Each Segment has a direction, from the start node to the end node.
A Way is a relation of an ordered set of Segments (regular and arcs) and has its own direction. Segments that go in the same direction as the Way have the role forward. Segments that go in the opposite direction of the Way have the role backward. One segment can be part of several Ways, with the corresponding role indicating whether its direction coincides with the direction of a particular Way.
What do we get?
- Arcs allow you to show smooth bends in the geometry without adding extra points to approximate them.
- Circles and Ellipses are Ways consisting at least of two arcs (using four nodes).
- MultiWays (MultiLines): A single Way relation contains sequences of Segments that form one, two, or more Ways that share common characteristics (e.g., dual carriageways, streets, etc.).
Finally, the Polygon and MultiPolygon data types, where outer/inner loops are ordered sets of Segments, use the direction of the Segments sequences to determine the inside and outside of the polygon. Everything to the right of the sequence of segments is outside the polygon, and everything to the left is inside. The outer loop has a counterclockwise direction, and the inner loop of the multipolygon has a clockwise direction. MiltiPolygon can have several outer and inner loops. This solves the problem of rendering incomplete Polygons.
It is crucial to acknowledge that a Segment is a Relation.
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Provide a choice of geocoders on osm.org. In the same way users can choose amongst serveral map layers and several routing engines, the Search engine could provide a choice between Nominatim, Photon, Pelias and others I do not know about. Providing multiple geocoders would show there are multiple geocoders available, and possibly impulse improvements to geocoders.
Just for the record: the CWG asked for one feature you would want, not for the OSM equivalent of War and Peace.
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Why “arcs”? I am not very well versed in geometry, but from what I understand, road and railway curves are klothoids, i.e. they have a linearly changing curvature (they are also called Euler spirals). You would still need an infinite number of circles to represent them perfectly.
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At least the first two (and the third one likely too) of these are things that simply requires somebody, preferably you, doing the foot work and then adding them to GitHub - osmlab/editor-layer-index: A unified layer index for OSM editors. just like for the 100s of layers that are already listed there.
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I wish for xkcd #1086 
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I’d like to have the ability to zoom in closer, I’m visually impaired. I don’t understand why this is not possible.
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Getting lifecycle tags rendered would also be nice to have 
Like disused:building/ construction:highway.
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To add something similar, I get annoyed with the hiking renderers, since they use small font sizes for displaying isohypse altitudes. But they’re done with fixed sized fonts, so zooming in doesn’t change anything besides placement and is thus useless if you couldn’t read it before already.
It’ll all be great with vector tiles but while we have raster, you can still use your browser’s magnification feature! “Ctrl+Mousewheel” on the map canvas will be swallowed by the Leaflet map, but if you do the same with the mouse cursor in the menu bar above the map, you can blow the page up 200% and more, and that includes the map. All a bit browser dependend and YYMV on mobile, and of course it gets all pixel-y but if you don’t like that you’ll have to wait for vector.
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This is using OSMF’s demo vector tiles now (compare with OSM’s standard style).
I deliberately use an old version of leaflet on this map so that a “two fingered zoom” on mobile makes text larger rather than showing the next highest zoom level tiles. As Frederik says, vector map styles can use larger text sizes at higher zooms that get smoothly larger as you zoom in - compare the text size here with here.
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I wish the router interface on OpenStreetMap.org was more powerful.
I don’t know quite what the capabilities of the three routers included (GraphHopper, OSRM, and Valhalla), and possibly not everything is supported by all of those, but here’s a quick wishlist:
- support displaying at least two alternatives to choose from
- allow planning a route with a stopover point (A->B->C)
- allow dragging on the displayed route (dynamically create a stopover or via)
- allow selecting a way or node and avoiding it in the updated route (e.g. right click, select “Avoid”)
- display some properties about the route being displayed or about specific points, like “along cycle track” or “unmarked crossing” or “unsignalled left turn”
- support some scoring profiles, for example for walking support “prefer quiet streets” and “prefer passing many POIs”, for cycling support “prefer fastest route” and “prefer quieter streets”
More generally I wish the OpenStreetMap.org website was a showcase of how powerful and capable the OSM ecosystem is, for example through improved integrations with routers or querying systems like Overpass/Turbo or tools like WhoDidIt for actually useful history. There’s so much data and capabilities within OSM but the website really doesn’t make it easy to see it.
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In iD, make the default behaviour not to glue nodes to ways where they’re landuse areas or (especially) legally defined boundaries.
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Hold down the Alt/Opt button when you don’t want those nodes to be glued to the ways.
Press “?” question mark to get all possible shortcuts. iD/Shortcuts - OpenStreetMap Wiki
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I know that, thanks. It’s the default behaviour I would like to change, not the “press this to override the default” behaviour.
It’s partly for me, mainly for novices who cause downstream problems by gluing everything together. Especially problematic on boundaries, especially common on landuse.
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Not linked on openstreetmap.org but an interface that ticks all your points:
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I took a moment to categorize the answers in this thread so far (going purely by scope, no comment on feasibility or desirability)
- Green: In scope for the OSM API / openstreetmap.org website
- Orange: Out of scope for core OSM, but in scope for closely related projects in the OSM ecosystem
- Red: Out of scope for OSM as a whole / requires access to resources that are not available for OSM
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