Google Maps and satellite imagery of KW

[KevinL]

Nice stuff! I note the new stuff fades out just shy of Northfield- the Ion OMSF is a half-ghost of a building.

[Markster]

Ah, so you're the guy I see making a ton of edits in Waterloo lately!

I'd say just go with the latest information, i.e. that old pdf you posted. The site as built doesn't seem to go against it.

Yup, that would be me! I've been mainly realigning roads that are badly aligned, but I've also been drawing in a ton of parking lots, adjusting roads for eventual Ion track, and other miscellaneous cleanup (adding in the Weber St grade separation and readding the Margaret Ave bridge, for example). Are you seeing the edits in Google Maps proper, or are you using Map Maker too?

[moving this discussion to a more appropriate location]
Yeah, you'll see me editing as "MJB". For the most part, I tend to fix up pedestrian paths and bike network things, to help improve Google Directions. Often, you won't be able to get transit directions in a place, because google can't find you a route to the bus stop, even when it's just a thin strip of grass. Or, you'll be able to go one way, but not the other, because Google doesn't know you can cross the street.

I noticed that the new satellite imagery is a tiny, itty-bitty bit north of the old stuff, so most everything is ever-so-slightly misaligned. Kinda irks the OCDness.

Another quirk: With the added building outline information, it's hilariously merged some details from the manually entered buildings, with the set of outlines. In some places, the outlines of long-demolished houses have returned, but now they've been given the height value of the tower that replaced it. Just look at the shadows being cast by some of those houses in the Lester/University area!

[GtwoK]

That is a bit annoying yeah. I've been struggling with a bunch of changes because — ever since Map Maker was started back up — the auto-moderator doesn't seem to let anything past except for the adjustment of road / trail vertices. Having to wait after every small edit for Google to approve it is beyond annoying. Especially when reworking some of the more complicated things that I know are correct, but aren't on the imagery. Google normally ends up rejecting them. Extremely frustrating.

As well, annoying that imagery outside of downtown hasn't been updated in a good number of years. Looking specifically at the Conestoga College area, Homer Watson is still only 4 lanes, and has the old interchanges, while Conestoga's new wing on the Doon campus and the entirety of the Cambridge campus aren't even there. Would be nice to get an update there.

[Markster]

Yeah, changing things that don't agree with the outdated imagery was always more work than it was worth. The new update has opened up a gold mine of "Oh I can finally fix that!"

What kinds of edits are you making that needed approval? It's mostly back to the good old days for me. Lines/verticies/attributes and new lines are mostly published immediately, deletes and some vertex operations need approval

[GtwoK]

Almost any edits that I make need approval, apart from slightly adjusting the alignment of existing roads via vertices. My page says I have more than 2,400 edits (2,200 of which have been approved) , and creating new roads used to not be a problem. I'm not sure what it is now — maybe I just need even more edits to become more trusted by the system? For a few weeks after reopening everything was fine and dandy, it was only withing the past 2 weeks that auto-moderator started requesting approval for every edit.

[Markster]

Huh, maybe it's trying to put the brakes on you!

[JoeKW]

They locked everything down after a few people vandalized some areas.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/g...vandalism/

[clasher]

I guess that's part of the reason no one has put the spur line trail on the bike/walking directions yet.

[Markster]

Old news, that.
They've reopened editing for a month now. GtwoK and I contribute.

As for the Spur Line, I've been fighting with that ever since editing opened up. Everything looks right in Mapmaker, but for some unknown reason, it just keeps not showing up in directions. I've done a lot of tweaks to see if it would fix it, but nothing is working. And then I'll make a change that needs Google approval, and I have to deal with arbitrary judgement of poorly documented guidelines.

[Canard]

Are you guys going to add the ion route?

[zanate]

Are you guys going to add the ion route?

Is that the role of community mapmakers? I'd really hope that ION route and stops and schedules is all driven from region's GTFS data.

Or is there another aspect of the ION route that would be community-added?

[Viewfromthe42]

In some spots, it'll likely reshape footpaths, at the least. Not that those have proven to be easy to recognize (see: Spur Line). Hopefully the stations won't be seen as islands

[zanate]

In some spots, it'll likely reshape footpaths, at the least. Not that those have proven to be easy to recognize (see: Spur Line). Hopefully the stations won't be seen as islands

Good point. For ped and bike directions to work well, the station areas and connections to them will have to be well outlined.

[Markster]

The community mapmakers add the visual indication of rails to the map. As for transit functionality, that's up to GRT and their GTFS data.

[insider]

Now Waterloo is in 3d on Google Earth... looks amazing!