User:Caldini

My real name is David Calder and I was given the nickname caldini over ten years ago while watching an Italy international football match. I have been contributing to OpenStreetMap since November 2009 after hearing about it on the excellent Bike Show. I think OSM can be an excellent resource for cyclists and organisations working for cyclists.

Cycling

I want to make Watford as up-to-date as possible and map all the cycle facilities so that OSM can be used as a resource by Spokes cycling group to campaign for better facilities and promote cycling to the public.

GPS

In the past I have used a Garmin Edge 705 for recording GPS tracks. This works great on long distance rides on my bike.

In dense town centres I prefer to walk but the track that gets recorded can be all over the place due to the tall buildings so I use the following method for recording short, straight roads:

1. Turn on the GPS and wait for it to get a good fix.
2. Walk to the first junction.
3. Make sure there is still a good reception.
4. Start the timer and stand in the same spot for about 5 seconds.
5. Stop the timer.
6. Walk to the next junction and repeat steps 3, 4 and 5.

The GPS will fill the gap in between the two junctions with a straight line. It can only be used for recording straight roads, and perhaps the shapes of buildings. It would be useless for mapping curved roads, so don't try it.

I used GPSBabel to convert the tcx history file to gpx and then import it into OSM and edit it using Potlatch.

Places I have mapped

• A few bike friendly inter-city roads in Spain (not so easy to find!)
• Some residential streets in Antequera, Spain
• Bits of Leeswood, Wales that have since been improved upon by Chris Morley
• Improvements to Watford using Bing

This is me on OSM.

Categories

All my contributions to OpenStreetMap are released into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use my contributions for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.