Everyday when I open up a taxi or ride-share app to book a ride to work or a meeting, I have noticed one detail that sticks out on my map: there are several points near my home that are labelled “Streetart Straße”. Indeed, beautiful murals on shophouses is a common sight in the area that I live in, but why on earth are these points being highlighted to me above other actual landmarks here?
Why is it in German? And why is it that it seems that this map item has been set to show even at the highest zoom levels where most other details are filtered out? (Map zoom levels refer to how at the lowest levels, you might only see continents and broad country labels, but at the highest level, you see cities and their details. Data is selectively shown at different zoom levels, so that the map remains readable).
So I decided to google it a bit…
Contributions by Clara95 on OpenStreetMap
The answer is mundane. It appears that a (likely born 1995, female) German traveller toured through Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and decided to create a half dozen map points of Street art, fast food, pizza places, and bus stops on Openstreetmap. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Not gonna lie when I remembered that OSM was editable that my response to seeing this (and it being that I’ve lived here for years and still haven’t left my mark on Openstreetmap unlike a traveller through these parts…) it immediately led me to this… reactivating my account…
I’ll report back when I’ve finally managed to make a positive or interesting dent in the REAL MAP OF THE WORLD…
* Oh but also not this kind of dent. I found this when browsing in editor view. Por… whoever you are, er… we don’t need to know your exact house unit!!!