Trails

[danbrotherston]

Where does the satellite view data come from?  I assumed that Google was drawing from other resources, private or governmental, that conducted regular aerial surveys in the course of their work.  Aside from Google Streetview, I don't think that Google has their own satellites in the sky looking down. I know that Google has the practice of either licensing or buying up old datasets that are set for disposal.

I took a quick look at Google Earth and the Kitchener and Waterloo imagery is dated August 10, 2018 (8/10/2018...since everything is green, it's not likely October). St. Jacobs ranges from July 15, 2015 to August 18, 2022. These dates also apply to the western and eastern edges of Waterloo.  Elmira gets October 5, 2022 to 'newer'.  Cambridge is July 29, 2015 except for the intersection of the Can-Amera Parkway and Franklin Blvd which is May 10, 2023.

At the bottom of Google maps it shows who the data is from. Their aerial map data is bought from many providers, but I think a lot of the high resolution 3D maps for cities are not from satellites but from airplanes.

[dtkvictim]

Anyone with a status update on the Transit Hub/Cherry Park trail that runs along Stewart to Joseph? I know they started installation last year, but the actual link across the railway tracks has to be handled by CN.

As of a week ago: It's passable, but incomplete. Stewart St is basically complete, as is the trail adjacent to the Google garage (though their portion is marked as No Winter Maintenance which will be annoying if that persists...). There is still some unpaved dirt around the tracks but I can't recall if that's outside of the rail right of way or not. The Joseph St multi-use trail still has no activity as the university building has been blocking it for 2 years. The trail between Joseph St and King St is done.

[SF22]

The satellite view over Kitchener recently reversed time recently... The last time I looked it was fall 2018, as denoted by a fresh stump from a dead ash tree I had taken down in the backyard, but now it's back to around the time they were burying the hydro lines along Fairway (and a very much alive ash tree in the backyard.)

Okay, I thought I was misremembering that! I didn't even consider that they might have walked back the images for some reason. Totally wild.

[SF22]

Anyone with a status update on the Transit Hub/Cherry Park trail that runs along Stewart to Joseph? I know they started installation last year, but the actual link across the railway tracks has to be handled by CN.

As of a week ago: It's passable, but incomplete. Stewart St is basically complete, as is the trail adjacent to the Google garage (though their portion is marked as No Winter Maintenance which will be annoying if that persists...). There is still some unpaved dirt around the tracks but I can't recall if that's outside of the rail right of way or not. The Joseph St multi-use trail still has no activity as the university building has been blocking it for 2 years. The trail between Joseph St and King St is done.

Appreciated, thanks so much!

[KevinL]

I think a lot of the high resolution 3D maps for cities are not from satellites but from airplanes.

Correct, you can't get that 3D resolution from space, it requires a relatively low aerial pass - and for the 3D effect you need orthogonal LIDAR/visible scanning from multiple directions.

[Acitta]

Anyone with a status update on the Transit Hub/Cherry Park trail that runs along Stewart to Joseph? I know they started installation last year, but the actual link across the railway tracks has to be handled by CN.

Also, who else has noticed that the Google satellite view is 6+ years out of date? They're still installing the LRT line in the images. Google Canada is headquartered here, you'd think we could get a current overhead view of our city.

Bing Maps and Apple Maps are also out of date, though Apple shows the Google parking structure, so is not quite as out of date as the others.

[ac3r]

Fun fact...with a 30-40 dollar SDR USB dongle off of the internet, you can download your own constantly up to date satellite images. :'P Obviously not as high quality, but you can tune the most basic software defined radio receiver to receive satellites in space, decode the data and produce your own real time imagery.

[tomh009]

I think the current satellite maps are from somewhere around 2016.

[ac3r]

At least. The other day I was looking up an address on Charles Street to find the exact location of a proposed development that is coming soon (but has not been announced), then started clicking around for fun. They're definitely a few years out of date. I forget when Charlie West began, but if you look on Maps you can see they had only just started digging the hole.

A lot of the street view is out of date as well. If you put the little man on Gaukel, you still see the old gas bar and cafe that was there before the tower as well as some of the early construction of the LRT although that is likely because Gaukel is now pedestrianized and they haven't had a smaller vehicle take photos yet. Certain streets are up to date, though. I found myself on Google Maps sitting somewhere in the city smoking and reading a book haha. I had them blur that. Apparently they don't ask you anything, you just fill out a quick forum and they blur you. I think most of the streets were mapped in September 2023, though I've found some that date to 2022.

[dtkvictim]

A lot of the street view is out of date as well. If you put the little man on Gaukel, you still see the old gas bar and cafe that was there before the tower as well as some of the early construction of the LRT although that is likely because Gaukel is now pedestrianized and they haven't had a smaller vehicle take photos yet.

That's about the most recent coverage you can have on Gaukel since the demolition and closure of Gaukel were close together. The portion of Gaukel/Halls Ln that is open has relatively up to date coverage.

Google has a small Trekker camera that is usually worn as a backpack, but can be mounted on other things like sleds, bikes, etc. They use it for pedestrianized areas, indoor places like museums, or places that cars otherwise can't get to or are impractical (very remote locations, historical sites, etc). I think it's really unlikely to see it for just 1.5 blocks of a small city. You used to be able to rent/borrow an official Trekker camera, but it looks like they discontinued that program. Best option now is for someone with the right equipment to upload typical third party coverage as has been done on many of our city trails.

[danbrotherston]

A lot of the street view is out of date as well. If you put the little man on Gaukel, you still see the old gas bar and cafe that was there before the tower as well as some of the early construction of the LRT although that is likely because Gaukel is now pedestrianized and they haven't had a smaller vehicle take photos yet.

That's about the most recent coverage you can have on Gaukel since the demolition and closure of Gaukel were close together. The portion of Gaukel/Halls Ln that is open has relatively up to date coverage.

Google has a small Trekker camera that is usually worn as a backpack, but can be mounted on other things like sleds, bikes, etc. They use it for pedestrianized areas, indoor places like museums, or places that cars otherwise can't get to or are impractical (very remote locations, historical sites, etc). I think it's really unlikely to see it for just 1.5 blocks of a small city. You used to be able to rent/borrow an official Trekker camera, but it looks like they discontinued that program. Best option now is for someone with the right equipment to upload typical third party coverage as has been done on many of our city trails.

I know the city has done street view of trails as an internship project. Google allows uploading of the data that they collected. The city owns the equipment for collecting the imagery.

[tomh009]

A lot of the street view is out of date as well. If you put the little man on Gaukel, you still see the old gas bar and cafe that was there before the tower as well as some of the early construction of the LRT although that is likely because Gaukel is now pedestrianized and they haven't had a smaller vehicle take photos yet.

That's about the most recent coverage you can have on Gaukel since the demolition and closure of Gaukel were close together. The portion of Gaukel/Halls Ln that is open has relatively up to date coverage.

For street view, yes. The lack of aerial photography doesn't have many valid excuses, though.

[dtkvictim]

That's about the most recent coverage you can have on Gaukel since the demolition and closure of Gaukel were close together. The portion of Gaukel/Halls Ln that is open has relatively up to date coverage.

Google has a small Trekker camera that is usually worn as a backpack, but can be mounted on other things like sleds, bikes, etc. They use it for pedestrianized areas, indoor places like museums, or places that cars otherwise can't get to or are impractical (very remote locations, historical sites, etc). I think it's really unlikely to see it for just 1.5 blocks of a small city. You used to be able to rent/borrow an official Trekker camera, but it looks like they discontinued that program. Best option now is for someone with the right equipment to upload typical third party coverage as has been done on many of our city trails.

I know the city has done street view of trails as an internship project. Google allows uploading of the data that they collected. The city owns the equipment for collecting the imagery.

I believe that is the coverage uploaded by this account



Which was done as a series of photo spheres. Other third party users have uploaded lower quality coverage of the trails, which annoyingly overlaps with the city's photos:



I'm not sure how a third party user (including the city) uploading coverage of Gaukel St would work, since Google already has official coverage there from when it was open to cars. I think the navigable photo sphere approach the city already used on trails would be allowed at least.

[cherrypark]

That's about the most recent coverage you can have on Gaukel since the demolition and closure of Gaukel were close together. The portion of Gaukel/Halls Ln that is open has relatively up to date coverage.

For street view, yes. The lack of aerial photography doesn't have many valid excuses, though.

Must be to do with the 3D rendering. Kitchener has/pays for annual high resolution aerial imagery so it isn't the lack of the 2D product.

[dtkvictim]

The trail area adjacent to the Innovation Arena looks like it was recently cleaned up and flatten compared to what I remember, and I think the construction fencing has moved in. Hopefully trail work is finally beginning? Took some photos of the trail crossing over the tracks as well since it was asked about.